For someone who doesn't embrace co-sleeping at all, I sure
seem to do it a lot. I never intended to be a co-sleeper, nor do I like it, but
my kids seem to feel otherwise.
This morning I woke up in the guest room bed, sleeping
alongside my two-year-old. How did I get there? It was a long, sleepless
journey to that guest room bed... It started somewhere around 2:00 a.m., when
my four-year-old climbed into bed with me and then took over my sleeping space.
This is a near-nightly habit for her. Can I just tell you, I pity her future
husband. That girl is a bed hog. Not only is she a bed hog, but she's a sleep
snuggler. Me? I'm a snuggle-separate-then sleep person.
Having someone rubbing
my arm, then yelling at me when I try to roll over, is not my idea of a good
time. Finally, exhausted and exasperated, I couldn't take it anymore. I had two
choices A) carry her, kicking and screaming back to her own bed, or B) sneak
off the guest room for a little snooze, all on my own. I chose the coward's
route. And, for a while, it was great. Really great.
Then, 5:00 rolled around and my little guy woke up,
demanding to sleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed, which was fully-occupied. So, I
took him back to the guest room bed with me. Which was fine, until he woke up
wanting water. Then, we went back to sleep for a while, which was fine, until
he woke up wanting more water...
The night before last, I slept on the floor of my son's
room, because he was suffering from cold-induced asthma and I wanted to be
close to him. The night before that, my four-year-old again found her way into
bed with me... Long story short, it's been about 4 1/2 years since I've had a
truly decent night's sleep. Sure, we get a few uninterrupted nights here and
there. Sometimes even a month at a time, but overall I'm downright
sleep-deprived.
I know I should do the responsible thing and cart them back to their beds on a nightly basis. But, at 3 in the morning, all reasoning and responsibility goes out the window. That's when I either don't fully wake and don't even realize that I've even let them into my bed or I simply make the decision that will (hopefully) get me back to sleep the fastest in that particular instance, disregarding potential long-term impacts.
My mom loves to tell me all of the harms that come from
sleep-deprivation, mainly weight gain. Joy. At least I have something to blame
that on, I guess...
When I was visibly pregnant with my daughter, I was in the
elevator at work. Someone I'd never met before got on, took a look at my
protruding belly and, like an evil witch in a Disney movie, told me it'd be 18
years before I slept through the night again. At the time, I called her a crazy,
evil witch (in my head of course), except witch started with a "b."
Now, I just know she was a prophetic truth-teller...
Well, one day they'll go off to college and I can sleep
through the night again. Until then, I guess I'll just invest heavily in
under-eye cream. Kiehl's, you can thank my kids for the uptick in sales.
