Where's My Spot?

On Saturday I got up early and went yardsaleing with a good friend of mine. I like to go see what sort of stuff other people are getting rid of. I also love it when I find really cool stuff for really cheap. This week I scored a headboard for my Mom for $5! Such a good deal. I also got a pink princess lamp for the girls for $2. Totally cool! Then there are the people who try to sell stuff at antique store prices. I saw a very pretty serving bowl. It was blue and pink and was a sort of oriental style. I might would have paid $5 for it, but not $25! It's a yardsale, get over it! But the whole upshot of the yardsale thing is that I had to get up early. 6:30. That is just wrong. I don't like to get up that early, but we do what we must to get the bargains. So, after I got out of bed I looked and there wasn't any room for me even if I had wanted to get back in.

How did this happen? I never started out thinking we would have a "family bed". I always thought it was weird and a little creepy. Well, that was four kids ago.

We were really good about getting the first one to sleep by herself. Then when the second one came along, I was just too tired to care much. She started sleeping in her own bed a little after she was a year old. Our wall sharing neighbor went away on a cruise, so we didn't feel guilty letting her scream. It only took a couple of nights and she was sleeping the night away in her very own bed.

Then came that boy. He refused to sleep in his bassinet as an infant. Then when he got too big for it (about a week after he was born) he would not lay down in the crib at all without screaming. At the time, we lived in a two bedroom place, and we couldn't just let him "cry it out" in the same room as the girls. So, when we moved into our current house, we did let him scream. He would scream for hours! It was awful. We finally gave in. He will go down in his bed, but he winds up in ours sometime between two and six every night. He's three now, and I just hope before he turns ten he learns to stay in his bed.

Then there's that cute, yet very stinky, Baby. He is 11 months old now. He has yet to sleep in his crib. It's all set up and waiting for him, but it is empty every night. He just won't lay down by himself. I've tried a few times, but I give in after about five seconds. I really do like to sleep with him though, and I think that is why I don't try very hard. He is so warm and soft and cuddly. I can't imagine just letting him lay there and cry. It would break my heart.

Now we are those weird people with kids in the bed. I am that Mom that has no spot in the bed after I get up. That is my wonderful husband who is pushed to the very edge every night by little feet. There aren't many nights when we sleep straight through. There's always someone waking us up for some reason. But, these are good nights. Our kids love us enough to want to be with us even when they are asleep. In a few years they will be to cool for us, and that big bed will seem empty. Then I will long for little feet and hands to push and wake me. Until then I'll have to keep trying to find my spot!

The Hubby also had to get up about five minutes after I left. The Baby's Mommy proximity alarm went off and he wasn't going to sleep if I wasn't there!