I never understood taking healthy newborns away from their mothers and placing them in glass boxes behind glass walls in separate rooms.  Thankfully hospitals have realized the antiquated notion does not benefit either baby or mother, and now they stay together unless there is a health concern.  For me, this extended into our lives after we brought our baby home.  I kept her in her bassinet next to me and it made night feedings way more convenient.  As a child, I was terrified of sleeping in the dark.  My parents tried EVERYTHING but just could not get me to sleep alone.  The same has proven true with my daughter.  It amazes me as to why a supposedly open minded family member is so preoccupied with this.  I have a lot of friends from varying cultures whose children sleep with them.  To me sleep is a loving, special time and I know my five year old is not going to stay in our room with us forever.  Thanks to her sleeping with me I have been able to almost instantly monitor when she has had fever, trouble breathing with her asthma, and have even been able to soothe her after bad dreams.  I have also been surprised by how many people secretly have confessed their kids sleep with them, too.  I do not understand the judgemental taboo that seems to wrap itself around this issue.  There is a time and a place for everything, if you understand my meaning.  My little one and I sleep better with each other right now; one day that will not be the case.  Until then, I am going to be there for her and savor her sweet sighs, her little arms wrapped around me, and our impromptu girls’ talks that happen sometimes in the middle of the night.  We giggle because Daddy just sleeps through it all.  The French poet, novelist, and dramatist Victor Hugo said, “A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.”  And with that, I am telling my little one “sweet dreams.”