Once upon a time, I had asked a friend her opinion on co-sleeping vs. making a child (specifically an internationally adopted child) sleeping in their own bed. If you remember, when we were in Russia - and even for the first month after getting home - Iliya would start the night out in his crib, but at some point during the middle of the night, he would cry, and come to bed with us. We didn't mind secretly came to love when he would sleep in the bed with us. I remember my parents saying that my siblings & I were all "wiggle worms" - they didn't mind when one of us got in bed with them, I don't think, but we didn't make the sleeping experience easy.

Because I need my sleep...I always thought that it would be better all around if my child didn't sleep with us. But as it turned out, Iliya was the perfect sleeper - slept right between us, barely moved. In fact, when he started sleeping through the night, we were a tad bit disappointed (though I thoroughly enjoyed not having to get up in the middle of the night so much).

Back to my friend. When asked for her advice/opinion, she mentioned that her boy would sleep with them some, but since coming home, he actually preferred sleeping in his own bed, because there wasn't enough room in the bed with mom & dad. In my mind, I thought, wow...compared to other children, Iliya must be the perfect little bedmate!

But last night caused me to change my tune a little bit. Nathan had Drill this weekend, and he ended up staying overnight with some of his friends - so that he wouldn't have to make the commute so early in the morning, after a long day yesterday. He asked me if I was going to put Iliya in bed with me, but I actually had decided that I wouldn't. I didn't want to mess up his sleeping routine.

Well, around 1:30 this morning, Iliya must've had a bad dream, because I was woken up by a sudden, fearful, very loud cry, coming through the monitor. I went to him, tried to calm him back down and lay him back in his bed, but he just didn't want to go back to sleep. He didn't want to interact, but his eyes just wouldn't close & stay shut! (I've had bad dreams before, where I couldn't go back to sleep, so this may've been the case with him)

So, thinking back to the sweet, docile child that used to sleep calmly in our bed, I decided to stick him in bed with me. If he couldn't go back to sleep, that was okay - but at least I wouldn't fall asleep standing up in his bedroom! He stayed still until 4:00 (yes, 4:00. laying there, staring up at the ceiling - occasionally reaching over to play with my hair) when he finally drifted off to sleep.

That is when the acrobatics began.

We actually got to witness said acrobatics last weekend, at my parents' house - we put Iliya in our room, on a small air mattress with sides - only to wake up occasionally to find him at random places on that side of the room. The child has become a very active sleeper.

But I figured that if he got in bed with me, he would be a little less acrobatic. You know, sleep manners, or something...?? Instead, I may have bruises in my kidneys, where I was repeatedly kicked. And it is a wonder he didn't acrobatic himself right off the other side of the bed. I kept having to readjust him (you know, from the edge of the bed - and feet out of my back) so you know I did not get good sleep.

I wondered, though, why the change? And then I thought - he didn't know us very well, in the beginning. He might not have been quite comfortable enough to let his hair down when he slept. The other thing is - we did not get to see his room in the baby home, so we don't know if he slept in a crib by himself, or with another child (this is one of those things we forgot to ask, despite our list of questions). But if he did sleep with another child, maybe "docile" sleep was something he just had to do. And now that he has his own bed, with his own room, he can be as free in his sleep as he wants to!

So now, he has the sweet freedom to turn, flip, roll whenever he wants to, when he sleeps. I'm just glad there are currently bars on his crib, to keep that sweet freedom in check - just a little bit.