Sounds of Snoring

Mama is working late tonight and so I've got "Basilisk watch," meaning I'm the adult on the second floor whose imperative it is to ward off any Harry Potter-esque giant snakes that might come get the kids.  Bud specifically is still very upset about the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and proves that he is just 6 1/2 by holding two completely contradictory notions in his head:  the HP books are a work of fiction by J.K. Rowling, whose picture we have shown him, and the books are real and the snake is coming (even if this overlooks the fact that Harry killed the snake at the end).  Mercy, I don't think he was this upset about Voldemort.  But fears aren't rational so Mama and I have been taking turns being in the next room as they fall asleep.  An easy solution.

And from the sawing next door, one that is working very well.

Breakin' the Rules

I broke the rules the other night.

For the first time.

Well, for this rule anyway: the kids sleep in their beds, not ours.

The other night, we were all having nightmares. All except Mama, that is, who was so hopped up on cold medicine that she didn't notice that there were two extra, squirmy people in the bed. I don't know what was in the water--and it wasn't a full moon--but I'd been up about half an hour reading, alternately, the entertainment pages of Huffpost and WebMD, when Bud and then Sis came into the room upset from bad dreams.

It was 3:30 a.m. And I think I needed a better diversion than my 'droid. I could also be useful and comforting. So I encouraged them to crawl into bed and cuddle up, one in front and one in back, both clinging, arms everywhere, hands in my hair and on my neck and over my chest.

How does anyone sleep like that?

I certainly didn't.

Probably because it was the first time for us all to sleep together, I was intrigued with the changes in their breathing, the flutterings of their eyelids, the small movements of their hands. It certainly was distracting. But not sleep-inducing. We rarely co-slept when they were babies (no judgments here--do what works for your family), mainly from a fear of rolling over them in our exhaustion and a desire to get as much sleep as we could between feedings every 45 minutes or so (when we were doing it on demand and they were on different schedules; we gave that up pretty quickly!). And even from a desire to retain the bed as our space from our pre-baby lives. But mainly for that first reason. Then as time passed, we kept the rule, for those other reasons plus a hope that they would be comfortable in their own beds, able to go back to sleep on their own. And it was never much of an issue. They easily go back to bed after nightmares or noises, with a quick kiss and a tuck-in. We're all generally happy with the arrangements.

But for that night last week, and for any subsequent ones when the need arises, I imagine I'll say yes again.

And maybe even get some sleep.