Tonight I was curled up next to my 4-year-old, my eyes half-mast. “I’m so tired. I just may fall asleep right here beside you.”
“And stay here all night?” she asked hopefully. It’s been an adjustment for my two younger daughters to not be able to sleep with me now that I have to night-nurture my little man and can’t safely co-sleep with everybody. Nor can I imagine how crowded our bed would be with five and occasionally six people in it since my 7-year-old still periodically migrates to our room. (For some co-sleeping humor, check this out.)
“Well, I’ll stay here until Thomas wakes up. Then I’ll have to go sleep with him.”
“Would it be a miracle if he didn’t need you all night?”
“Yes.”
“Would it be really, really, really a miracle if he didn’t need you?”
“Yes.”
Not even two seconds later, I could faintly detect a noise rising up from below us that sounded an awful lot like a baby wailing.
“I think I hear Thomas,” my sweet, understanding daughter said.
No miracles for me tonight. In fact, I’m typing standing up as I bounce my baby boy in my Ergo, his head completely burrowed into my chest.
See?
Sleep is overrated. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.
Thank God you know that you are holding a miracle and surrounded by them at the same time that you realize how lovely sleep would be. Your comment about how many people may end up in your bed reminded me of something my dad would say to us when we were little and would get in mom and dad’s bed, “You know, if we were poor, we’d all have to sleep in this bed.” We always rolled our eyes even though it was just the four of us.
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Cute post. So very like little ones to want to curl up with their mamas and say sweet things.
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Gasp…is Thomas sporting a combover?
:)
Kate, i don’t know how you do the co-sleeping up at all times of the night thing. Sleep is just so so so important to me, and I can barely sleep well with just my husband in the bed! While we never let our kids cry it out, we do encourage them to sleep in their own space from a young age. I admit that sometimes I fall asleep with the baby in the bed while breastfeeding, but then I pay for it when I can’t get comfy later or he needs to burp and is gassy so doesn’t sleep for too long. Maybe when my kids are all grown up they will need counseling because their mommy wouldn’t let them sleep in the bed…but I hope not! Good luck getting your miracle!!
He’s very Don Draper-ish.
Thanks for sharing!
I regularly strap my 3.5 mo to me in my Moby and bounce on an exercise ball. I’m waiting for my miracle too! ;)
Oh. I waited so long for my miracle. Baby Rosebud, five years old, just moved out to her own room with her brother. Her wall is pink. First time in 24 years I have not had a child or more in bed. So weird. Not what I expected. The days are long, the years are short…we long for the miracle, then we long for a baby. God has a sense of humour. Don’t you think?