Why is it that the little people take up the most room? At least in my house they do. The girls have their own rooms and we encourage them to sleep in their own beds, but sometimes they end up crawling into bed with us. It’s not that I want them there, but putting them back into their own beds would require me to open an eye and get out of my warm bed. When they come into the room, my mom-radar ears go up and I instantly know that they are standing next to me. I reach over and scoop them up and tuck them in next to me. I have this down so well that I don’t even have to open my eyes or pull back my warm blankets, because doing those things would take working brain cells and usually in the wee hours of the morning, they’re not. And usually, the girls are safe from rolling off the bed since I’m on one side and Bill is on the other, not that they do, but it’s just the paranoid mom in me who fears that they will if I don’t somehow protect them. And when Bill’s not home, I make The Great Wall of Pillows.
So now we have four people in one bed. It is a California King, but on many nights that is too small…at least for me. I seem to be the one that gets the shaft when it comes to sleeping comfort. Having only one head, my head, on the pillow would be a luxury that I only dream of. And sleeping without a child’s face smashed to mine. And no random arms flung across me, or legs or rear-ends either.
Yes, I could get up and go sleep in one of their beds, and I have done that before, but that would require the brain cells to be working to realize what I needed to do to be comfortable. And then I would have to search for pillows to make The Great Wall of Pillows. So usually I just accept it and tell myself that I am giving my daughter(s) some extra snuggles that night.
But the other day was a stretch in comfort for me. Throughout the night, everyone kept moving closer and closer to me, to the point that I was clinging to the side of the bed trying not to fall onto the floor. Rolling over? Impossible. Blankets? None. A pillow to myself? Nope. Free from randomly flung sleeping body parts? In only a dream.
I was going to get up and move to another bed, but because everyone seemed so restless, I was really nervous that the shift to the left side of the bed would just continue and shortly the girls would end up on the floor. So I did the next reasonable thing: I slept at the foot of the bed. But I had to keep my arm stretched out along-side the edge of the bed to keep bodies from going over the side. Got the picture? Can I tell how comfortable this was? And what a great night sleep I had? In case you were wondering: not comfortable and no sleep.
And I’m sure you are thinking “why don’t you just move them over in the bed?” You think I haven’t tried that? I am always moving a body, or at least body parts, over to their section of the bed, but they always make their way back to me. And usually, then it’s just not a head or an arm, but now a head, arm and leg…so it’s worse. And if you don’t have children, I’m sure relating to this story will probably be a bit difficult, but just try snuggling with two 40 pound dogs or a baby elephant and you’ll understand why I don’t sleep much.