Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Bed Hopping

Ugh!! Another post on sleep. Or rather, the lack of sleep. Seriously, when one's children are eight and four, one thinks sleep issues are a thing of the past. One is an idiot.

There are two beds in our master bedroom. A queen and a twin. The twin is still there from the early months when the girls and I were living there alone, with occasional visits from Tom, who was still in Huntington working on selling our old hours. I admit to being over-protective and I liked having the girls near me when it was just the three of us in the house.

So yes, these issues are all my fault. I admit to that. But even admitting it, I reserve the right to bitch about it too.

These days, the girls sleep in the queen bed and I am in the twin. It's actually pretty nice, except that poor Tom tends to fall asleep in the couch. But other than that, I like the fact that I am alone in that small bed and the girls have each other to snuggle up to.

Except for last night...

We went to bed early because we were all over-tired and cranky. The girls were in their usual spot and I was comfy in my little bed. And hour after we went to bed, Olivia woke up to find that it was Alyssa she was cuddled up against. This was unacceptable and so she joined me in the twin bed.

I made do with sharing the tiny bed for about an hour but then I gave in and moved to the queen just to have a little more room. This left Olivia to the luxurious space that was the twin bed.

An hour after I vacated the space next to her, Olivia woke again and moved her little self back to the queen, taking her place between me and Alyssa.

Yet another your later, I woke to the pressure of Olivia pushing against my back with all her 35 pound might. I snapped into the still darkness of the room, "For Pete's sake, Olivia, stop that!"

Then I moved, AGAIN, to the other bed, stretched and enjoyed for a moment the lavish space of a twin bed with no one next to me and went back to sleep for a few hours left until the alarm went off.

We have the frame for bunkbeds set up in the girls' room but there are no mattresses on the frame. Why? Because we haven't bought mattresses yet. Obviously, we need to do this and soon. Once we get mattresses on that bunkbed, we need to start putting the girls to bed there. And when they wake and try to worm their way back into our bed, we need to walk them back down the hall to their own room.

And we need to do this consistently until the day comes that they no longer even try to come down to our bed.

Will this be painful? Yes, for awhile.

Will it be hard? Yes, but only at the start.

Will there be tears? Probably, from several different characters in this farce.

Will I be tempted to just pull them into bed with me in an effort to get even ten minutes of extra sleep? Of course. Because I'm lazy. BUT!!! I know that in the long run, the above plan will yield the results we want (MORE SLEEP FOR EVERYONE!) much faster than anythign I've done so far. Laziness only gets you so far. I need to learn that and try something different before someone gently reminds me just how insane I am for putting up with this any longer. Bitching about it all is obviously not the solution or things would have been fixed years ago.

So I'm on the hunt for twin mattress to get this party started. Oh yes, and I need to paint the girls' room before moving them in there.

So much to do on so little sleep...

3 comments:

McKinley {Haolepinos} said...

I know, I love it when Eke can snuggle next to me or fall asleep in my arms. It really is such a rare thing and I love it when it happens. So I understand wanting it all the time! But I am not a nice person at all when I have lost sleep.... seriously, I fear anyone who meets my path! ahhaha IT'S SO SCARY!!! So you are brave... very very brave! And you are lucky you don't seem to suffer from the same curse that me and my sisters do! You are like the sleep hero haahahha.

Take pictures of the new bunk!!! I wish you luck in your search of a new twin!!!

Kate J said...

Hi Tommie, let me introduce myself - I'm Kate, and have Janine, who is 8 yrs old with CdC. I've seen your comments on other blogs, but I finally found yours today!
About the bed situation, just wanted to add that right about the time we were getting J. out of the tented crib and wondering how in the world to contain her at night (and keep her safe from wandering or getting into dangerous household things...) another 5P- family in our area sold us their bunkbed that they had used for their teenage daughter, who was about to have spine surgery, so needed a bigger bed that was open. They had modified the bunk bed so on the bottom, 3 sides are enclosed (with fence-like inserts made of matching wood), with the 4th side against the wall. It has a gate to get in and out of. This has been a Godsend.

Should Not Operate Heavy Machinery said...

I don't know if you are looking for suggestions, but here is one... Make it fun! Get a tent to go over the bed or something. My kids LOVE going to bed, putting on their little animal night light that shoots stars all over the ceiling of the tent. I kind of want one for my bed !