Confessions Wanted: How often do you check LO while sleeping?

[pranava]

Ok, so I need to know if I'm being overly paranoid. My LO is 8 months old. No loose bedding in the crib. I do have crib bumbers because he's always rolling over and banging his head into the wood slats. And there is normally his glo sea horse in there with him. I am paranoid he's going to stop breathing, or press his face into his sleep sack and be smothered. I get these uncontrollable urges to check on him in the middle of the night. He still gets up twice a night to BF, but I check on him an average of 2 additional times a night and at least once during a 2 hour nap.

Is this normal? How often do you all check on your LO's while they sleep?

[Icehockey18]

We actually co sleep (ds is 5 mo), and I either hold him or wear him for naps, but the reason we do is partly bc if he slept w out me I would be checking on him all the time! When he falls asleep in the car and I let him stay asleep in the car seat, I carry it in the house and rarely leave him untill he wakes. I'm not sure if checking on them all the time is paranoid, but if it is, I am too! I found having him sleep w me eleviates all your fears!

[fawnanddoe]

I check on DS all the time! I always check on him during naps, I just pop my head in the door. Then once he's down for the night I pop my head in every hour or two until I go to bed.
He does sleep in our bed, but even if he was napping or sleeping in a crib I would still check on him all the time!

[JamieCatheryn]

We cosleep, and I halfway wake to make sure nothing is over his face and so on a few times a night.

[teachma]

Nope, I'm not a checker. Then again, my almost 8 month old wakes up every hour to 90 minutes (yep, that's right) all thru the nite. Perhaps if, one night, he slept beyond 2 hours, I would feel compelled to check him. I might die of shock first, though, if he slept for that long of a stretch.

[Chamomile Girl]

During the day I stay in the room with him as he sleeps. At night (while I am still awake) I check on him about every 15min or so. We co-sleep, and he is a heavy breather so that part is easy.

[lifeguard]

Teachma - everytime ds has a night where he sleeps a longer than "normal" stretch I end up waking up constantly trying to figure out what is going on & feel a little bit panicked.

We check compulsively too. It's better now than when he was really little. When he was under 6 months dh & I were both checking him constantly & I had a couple weird, confused moments in the middle of the night where I couldn't figure out where he was (safely asleep in his bassinet) - scary. I think it's normal but I also think all the sids scare stuff makes it worse.

[Vegan Princess]

I almost never check on my LO. Am I a bad mom? We have a video monitor with great sound quality so I can turn it on and see her any time (which I do a couple times/night in addition to her 2 wakings) plus I can always hear her breathing on it when I have it turned up loud enough. DH on the other hand gets up more than me. Any time I question him about how she's breathing, etc. he has to go look at her. Saves me the trip. LOL.

Cindy

[beautifulboy]

We cosleep so I put him to bed, check on him once usually, and then eventually go to be myself. Sometimes I don't check on him at all but it's not really very long between when he goes to be and when I go to bed.

[blumooned]

Wow - I thought I was the only one that did this! It's nice to know you all do as well! I have actually (accidentally) woken him up by checking on him. Oops.

[Gentle~Mommy :)]

We co sleep (myself, DH & our boys) but when I was looking after my sister's son (she had surgery) I checked him constantly.. he was in the pack & play across the hall, I was up every half hour checking on him, even with the monitor on.

[TXmom2]

I check all the time too.
I'm a little more paranoid though because someone in my (extended) family just lost a 30 month old to "apparant sids" as well as a close friend who lost her 15 month old in '07 to sids. It's so devastating and scary


when working in childcare (in infant rooms for over 18 years) I do checks every 15-20 minutes when the kids are sleeping

[SarahElizabeth]

He goes to bed an hour or two before me (We don't cosleep, but he does sleep in our bedroom) and in that time, I check on him every 20 minutes or so. When I go to bed, I tend to read for an hour or two, and then I'm looking up every 5 minutes. When I sleep, I'm out for the night, though if he wakes I tend to, too.

He only has one nap, and I either hold him for it, or hes in the carrier (Or if we're shopping, he may be in the pushchair) ...

[kriket]

we cosleep, but DS goes down at about 8 and we go to bed at about 11 and I check on him at least 4 times in that time. I have to go in and get him back to sleep a lot too when the cat throws the door open.

[baby duck]

I used to check on DD all the time. But she came home on a heart monitor, and I was always checking to make sure it was working and that the lines weren't tangled, etc. I was even more obsessive about it after she came off the monitor. She eventually moved out of her bed and into ours, after her brother was born. She occasionally will move to the love seat in her room (she refuses to sleep in her bed), and I rarely check on her any more. If she is in her room, I'll retuck her in before I go to bed, but she is usually in ours.

[sunshynbaby]

We cosleep and have a cradle in the living room/office, so we're usually in the same room with him. If I did leave him in a room alone to sleep, I think I would need a video monitor because I'd want to check on him every minute!

[fruitfulmomma]

Another bedsharing family here, but with my older kids I hardly ever check on them. Usually dh peeks in their room before he comes to bed though.