I co-slept with my son the first night he was born; in the hospital and skin-to-skin. He couldn't regulate his own body temperature, so my body helped his body stabilize and, well, we co-slept every day since. I knew that there were going to be some weird things I'd have to just put up with when co-sleeping, but I didn't realize there would be weird things that happen when you stop c0-sleeping, too. Honestly, it was hard for me to even envision a day when I wasn't sharing my bed with a tiny little human who loved to hit and kick and thrash around. After a while, three people in one bed just became normal.
My son started sleeping in his own toddler bed when he was around a year old. The transition was smooth (almost too smooth. I mean, my partner and I spent so much time waiting for him to regress, but it never happened.) and I was able to essentially regain my bed as my own with ease. So, it was a ridiculous, unwelcome surprise when I realized that while getting my son to sleep in his own bed was easy, me sleeping in my own bed wasn't. I had what I had been looking forward to since my kid started throwing around his elbows like a damn NBA player, but I was bummed. I missed my little mini-furnace; I missed waking up to baby kisses; I missed smelling his sweet baby head; I missed it all, and no longer co-sleeping was going to be much harder than co-sleeping itself.
So, yeah; co-sleeping can be weird and you have to deal with some strange stuff when you share your bed with a baby and/or toddler (pee spots on the regular, anyone?) but it only gets stranger when you decide you're done. So, with that in mind, here are just a few weird things that happen when you stop co-sleeping with your baby. Hang in there, mom. It's going to get easier. I think.