Co-sleeper Co-incidence

Co-sleeping is often recommended for preemies. I was already planning on having the baby in our room for awhile when we thought he or she would be arriving in September, but now? There is no way he's going to be in another room. Aside from the fact that when he comes home, we will have been not only in another room but in another city for three months, we will need to attend to him and watch over him, especially if he comes home on a monitor. Let's face it, we are going to want to be around our baby as much as possible. We'll be the annoying parents I always privately mocked.

I checked out Craigslist, found a few of these cosleepers for sale, so I wrote to three of them. They all responded, and I eventually chose to go out to the suburb of Golden Valley to look at the lowest priced offering.

When I called, the first thing I heard was screaming kids, and then a frustrated "Hello?" I used my standard "Hello, may I please speak to..." intro, and she must have thought I was a telemarketer because she said "This is Amy," in the same frustrated voice. I was starting to form a picture based solely on my own stereotypes, my fear of strangers, and dislike of new situations (it was amazing that I had made it this far in the process). I was thinking "Oh man, I am headed out to some white trash mobile home in an inner ring suburb, aren't I?" I think it might be impossible to answer the phone when your kids are screaming and not sound white trash.

I continued in my happy, polite phone voice to introduce myself and reiterate the events to that point, and she relaxed and gave me directions.

I found the place pretty easily, and it turned out to be a nice, modest house with an Obama sign in the yard. This might not be so bad. A petite, pretty woman answered the door and showed me the sleeper. "Have you looked at these before?" she asked. I explained that they were recommended for preemies, and we have a preemie in the NICU.

"My first was a preemie," she said.
"Really? How early?"
"25 weeks."
"Same here."
"Do you want to meet him? He's two and a half now, and he has no problems."

We went into the kitchen where a normal, healthy toddler was standing in his booster chair with a handful of snacks, smiling.

"This is Atticus," she said.
"Oh! We have good friends with a two and a half year old named Atticus."
Her other baby, a 9 month old, was lounging on a play mat on the floor.

When dad came home, he went into the kitchen, and I heard him greeting the kids.

"Hi, Finn," stood out to me, and I asked "What is your other son's name?"

"Phinneus," they said.

"I was just asking because our son is named Finn."

We chatted a little bit about life in the NICU and the frustrations and adventures, and I was on my way. I figured if I stayed there for too long, I might find out that we were related or that I dated the husband in the early 90's. A little bit of coincidence can make you feel like you are not alone in the world. Too much is just creepy.