As it turns out, a crib might have been a premature expenditure. Ever since the second evening she was home, Avery's been sleeping a lot of the night in our bed. She seems more comfortable when she knows her mom and I are right there snuggled up against the small of her back, rather than separated by the wicker walls of a bassinet. And when it's time for her 2:30 am feeding, it's a lot easier for Sed to just roll over and pull up her shirt.

A lot of you now are shaking your heads at me. "Don't you know it's dangerous?" you're shouting at your computer screen. "Your baby could (choose at least one) never become self-reliant / develop a rash from your non-hypoallergenic fabric softener / smother beneath your arm flab / die of embarrassment when you tell her friends she shared a bed with you!"

To you, I have two responses:

1. Raise your own damn kids however you own damn please.
   
2. It will no doubt satisfy your sense of schadenfreude that I have not gotten a full night of restful sleep in a week thanks to someone (I'm not going to name names, but her initials are Avery Elizabeth) deciding the bed is a good place to dance.

Seriously, this kid whirls her arms and legs in her sleep like they're harvesting wind energy to power her body the next day. If there was any doubt that she was not my child, this would put it to rest. (After all, at one stage in my life I tracked down my parents for semi-coherent conversations while completely unconscious.) Sed manages to sleep through it, but then again, she's back to working 14-hour shifts this month. Plus Avery generally starts gettin' jiggy wit' it during the early morning hours, after Sed's already gotten up for the day and Daddy is still trying to eke out the most possible minutes prone.

The sleepytime calisthenics are good for her, I know. Avery is still young and has yet to really gain control of her motor functions, so I'm willing to put up with it. Because more important than my ability to snore is my daughter's early development. If all I have to endure is the REM Ninja for a few hours a night in order to instill a sense of security and protectedness in my daughter, then it's worth the cost.

Besides, it's not like this family bed thing is permanent. She'll move out once she has a boyfriend.