Before the sun came peeking up over the clouds this morning, I was already awake. Why am I up so early? Well friends, I tried to roll over but there was a blond, curly head pressed between my shoulder blades. Where her cold legs ended, a hot dog started. I was being double spooned by the girl and the dog. And just inches from her, her brother, talking in his sleep. Finally I heard (not saw) my husband and his familiar foghorn snores. Ahhh, the family bed. Picture perfect, right?
No, no it wasn’t. This is a reminder that we really need to go all Lucy and Desi and get two twin beds. Now that sounds live heaven.
All this togetherness reminded me of this post that I wrote a million moons ago.
This past week Hubby was on a “business” trip, and I use the term “business” lightly because a week of sleeping in a hotel with no kid-duty sounds like pretty sweet “business” to me, but I digress. While he was away, I thought it was the perfect time to get another man into my bed. It was this handsome devil…
You were nervous there for minute, weren’t you?
I know a lot of people who co-sleep: some by choice, others well….not so much by choice but necessity and exhaustion. I’m not big on co-sleeping because I really hate sharing my sleeping space with anyone. If Hubby tries to wrap an arm around me, he usually gets an elbow to the gut as a warning shot.
Your space and my space, buddy. Don’t cross the line.
Lyla takes after me and has no interest in an all-night snuggle fest. She has a precise system of sleep and if we play our cards right, we don’t hear from her for 12-13 blissful, sleeping hours.
So when I had an itchin’ for some baby love, I envisioned snuggling my son all night, breathing the sweet smell of his head, and being lulled to sleep by the sounds of his soft snores. Ahhhh bliss….
Silly me, I forgot this kid is the WORST person to share a bed with.
First, I couldn’t get the kid to settle down. He was like a crack-head all jazzed up and ready to party. He spent a good half hour practicing forward rolls in my bed. Then he started singing a rousing rendition of the ABCs while jumping up and down. It took a bear hugged to get him to simmer down.
When the sleeper-hold I had him in finally put him down for the night, I realized it was only 7:30 and I really needed to pee. But he rolled over and wrapped his arms in a death grip around my neck.
I tried to sneak away, but he pulled me back.
I tried to unwrap his limbs from me, but he squeezed harder.
Finally I just resigned to snuggle down even though I was wide awake and praying I didn’t pee the bed.
This kid is part furnace because heat just seeps off him at night and sends me into hot flashes making me wonder if early menopause has struck. The only way I got out of his death grip hold on my neck was my perfuse sweating gave me enough slide to wiggle out of his clutches.
He also talks in his sleep; actually it is more like ramblings of a man who’s lost his mind. At one point he said “I just want to dance to the doorbell. We have to get to our rocket ship,” then giggles, farts and rolls over. What the hell is going on with this kid?
When I did catch a few winks of sleep, I would wake with his hard head pushing into my shoulder-blade or a quick jab of his toes into my kidneys.
I tied pushing him to the other side of the bed, but he would wiggle back over to me, wrap his sweaty hands around my neck and say “I got you, Mommy.”
Since I clocked about two hours of solid sleep that night, I prayed the Sleep Gods would take pity on my, but oh no, they laughed and Mr. Hot-Crazy-Talker was up bright and early ready to talk about buffalos being brown and having four legs. Oh listen to that, Rip Van Winkle is up in her room too and demanding milk and Doc Mc Stuffins.
Someone pass the coffee, cause this is going to be a loooonnnngggg day.
I have literally never shared my bed with my kids. I hear my oldest is a kicker, though (from my youngest).
I let the kids sleep in the bed a few times as a special treat, but for the most part they had their space and I had mine. I’m selfish when I sleep!!!
The only time my son has slept with us is when he wasn’t feeling good and got in our bed in the middle of the night! If Elijah is in the bed ONLY Elijah sleeps cause he is ALL over the place so we usually put him back in bed when he tries to hop in! I have slept in his bed with him before, one of the times he was sick and daddy needed some rest!
I have never shared my beds with kids, since I don’t have any yet. However, my husband and dog can be kid-like sometimes!
i let my 7yo sleep with me on weekends when the husbands wants to stay up late. the zombie walk back to her bed isn’t that bad now that she’s bigger.
I shared with my oldest and put a stop to it soon after the 2nd was born. Now, I only let them crawl in when it’s thundering and they are scared. Otherwise, my bed is off limits. I need my sleep and they are movers and kickers!
Our oldest slept with us for medical reasons until she was 3 and then after that.. no more kids in our bed.. unless they were sick or just wanted to nap with us. Can’t handle a foot in my back.
The kids are all grown up and don’t try to sneak into our bed anymore, but the cats are almost as bad as the kids were! I’ll wake up sweating and find myself with two or three cats surrounding me, trying to push me off onto the floor.
I hope you someone managed to take a quick nap today. I know what you mean, totally. Although on the rare occasions any of my children sleep with me I tend to sleep heavier. Something about the kids being so close to me helps me sleep better.
Haha! Before I had kids, I was all “I’ll NEVER share my bed with my kids” and then, well, I had kids. My youngest sleeps like an angel. Always has. My oldest just turned 5 and she STILL wakes up every night and crawls into our bed! Luckily I’ve trained her to hog Daddy’s side, but it seems like everyone just moves closer to me until I’m hanging on the edge of the bed!
We’ve never shared the bed with kiddo. She’s always done really well. She does get shuttled around between homes through with different sets of parents/grandparents so I think it helped her to adapt to surroundings and not worry about things that go bump in the night.
My son stayed in his bed for the most part. From the time he could walk he would sleep walk and have the occasional night terror. I would let him in our bed after he had a bad night terror.
I remember giggling at this the first time I read it, and I giggled again just now!!! There are so many gems in this one! HAHAHAHAAHA!!!
I had this issue with my daughter for some time! Even though she had her own bed, she demanded that she sleep with me LOL!
I’m not a good bed sharer, but at least I can admit. Thankfully the kids are much older now so sharing doesn’t happen.
I definitely have to have my space. My poor sweet boy wanted to snuggle up this weekend because he had a fever. I definitely let him!
My son used to find his way to our room every night between midnight and 2 am. He would climb into bed with us and fall back asleep unless you tried to move him then he would be up for hours. It was hard to ween him from doing this but after a few sleepless nights he started to come in less and less.
I never let the kids sleep in my bed. If they were ill I always slept with them.
We cosleep. I didn’t until baby #5 came and I strictly breastfed. So my last two I’ve co slept. When they are off the breastfeeding they go in their own beds. #5 was 14 mos and #6 is still with us at 13mo. Doing this my kids have slept through the night since early on and although I thought it would be awful I am actually able to get better rest!
My son likes to snuggle, but I worry he will fall out of the bed! So, I always try to put him in the crib.
I would get into my kids beds with them if they were scared when they were little. It is a bad habit to break when you let the into your bed. I only allowed it occasionally
I was sharing my bed with my toddler for awhile too. And now she’s sick…so back in bed we are!
I used to have to share my bed with my kids a lot! So glad that they are much older now!
My husband is like you, don’t get into his space when it’s snooze time, lol. Our son comes in our room once in awhile on the weekends. Every time he does, we notice how much bigger he really is getting. 😉 I don’t mind though, I know it won’t be long and he won’t want to leave his own room. 🙂
This was so funny. I feel for you. I never allow my daughter to sleep in our bed except during vacations, so don’t have to deal with what you have to contend with.
Our bed was always being shared. I think if they need the snuggling then so be it.
lol Very cute! I don’t think the family bed is for everyone. Love that your little girl just goes off and does her own thing.
What an adorable little man! We never really bed shared. Made me nervous.
I shared my bed with my daughter when she was a newborn when I used to nurse her. She hasn’t slept with us since she was about 2 months old, though.
Oh, I’ve SO been there!
The kids take over our bed every weekend. It’s like a ritual at this point.
We don’t have any children, but I am the same as you… I need my space. I once shared a bed with my 5-year-old niece. Bad decision.
There was one evening when all of the kids and pets were in bed with us because of thunderstorms. I finally went and slept on the couch. Couldn’t get any sleep.