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August 8, 2013

Precious Bedfellows



The girls have never slept in our bed.  As super-duper-warm-and-fuzzy-snuggly-cuddly as it sometimes sounds, I never wanted to risk starting a habit that could be hard to break.

There were occasions, when the girls were infants, when one would wake up before her sister.  I would bring her to our bed and prop her up against my chest.  I never meant to fall back asleep myself, but I distinctly remember a time or two when I woke up with a sleeping baby. 

It is such a tender memory.

The only other times I can remember sleeping with the girls were when we were away from home.  There was one time at Granddaddy’s house, when Baby A woke up waaay too early.  And there have been a couple of hotel stays that have lent themselves to co-sleeping.

I really cherish those times.

A couple of weeks ago, when we were at The Farm, all four of us shared a bed for the first time.  We had thought that the girls and I would be in the king bed, and Daddy would be on a rollaway.  The room was pretty small, though, so the rollaway would have made things hard to navigate.  We decided we’d try a family bed, especially since we were there for only one night.

Hubby and I slept on the outside, with the girls in the middle.  I had Baby A next to me, and Baby B was by Daddy.

Daddy reported a pretty sleepless night, with B elbowing him a couple of times, kicking, and snoring loudly in his ear (or so he said…how he could hear that over HIS snoring, I don’t know!).

On my side of the bed, my sweet Baby A was the most precious of snuggle buddies.  She kissed my back.  She caressed my arms.  She kissed my head.  She whispered sweet nothings into my ear. 

And the one thing that I never, ever want to forget?   

My back to her, she very gently pulled up the waistband of my pajama pants, and then smoothed out my t-shirt over my back.  She is such a tender, nurturing soul.

These times are so precious to me, it almost makes me want to rethink our babies-in-our-bed strategy…almost.  I think I’ll reserve these super-special occasions for super-special circumstances, and I know they’ll always stand out in my mind as very super-special.

4 comments:

Deanna said...

I love that you documented the details of this memory! How sweet it is...

I generally let the girls stay if they come into our room after 6 a.m. (or daylight, basically), and those early-morning snoozing times are some of my absolute favorites!

Mrs FF said...

Awwww, A is such a tender heart.

LOL on daddy n B's snoring fest :) :)

Johanna at The Baker Twins said...

I have the same policy on twins in our bed. But, sometimes, I'll sleep with them in theirs when they aren't feeling well or if they have a bad dream. Love those snuggle times. And, I think you know my policy on picking up sleeping babies and rocking them when you need a mommy-pick-me-up.

Next time, you'll have to switch up which twin gets which parent... and see if perhaps Daddy was exaggerating sweet B's sleeping habits. ;)

Unknown said...

We also never had the kids sleep with us. For one - their bedrooms were directly across the hall so I always felt safe since they were close and also b/c we only have a queen size bed and it's a tight squeeze to include any of the kids in there, too!

We also used to occasionally bring the babies in to sleep on our chest in the mornings for a bit longer but never overnight. Hubby would subconsciously freak out anytime we did it, waking the next night thinking they were still in bed with us and we'd rolled over on them! It just wasn't worth the stress to his psyche! ha!

Well, our kids have always been pretty good sleepers but Adam's started waking up pretty frequently (a few times a week) with bad dreams lately. He's scream, run out of his room and over to our room (directly across the hall). I've let him stay and cuddle a few times and gone to his bed with him a few times, but last night, he crawled right in, snuggled up and fell sound asleep almost immediately. It was so sweet knowing he felt so safe there next to me to totally forget his dream and fall back asleep so quickly. I let him sleep with us a few hours before I woke up, (I was stiff and cramped) and carried him back to bed around 6am.

Seeing as how we never let the kids sleep with us before, it almost feels like a treat when they do cuddle up now ;-) But like you said...not sure I'd want to make a regular habit of it! ;-)