...to deal with some sleep issues. Every night at least three of us engage in a game of musical beds. You see in our family we have three people (Mark included) who are sound sleepers. You know, the kind that you could ring a gong over their heads at night and they would never know. The kind who you kiss goodnight and don't see or hear from again until morning. The kind all parenting books are written about.
Then we have four people (me included) who are restless sleepers. We wake to small noises and seek comfort in sleeping with others. We have disruptive nighttime behaviors. We've learned a lot about this category of sleepers in our seven years as parents. Madelyn started us off. She would startle herself awake as an infant and we'd find it difficult to let her self-soothe. Thus we held her a lot. No regrets though! She is much better now and eases herself to sleep with books these days. Madelyn's only quirk is that she sleepwalks. It started when we were in Texas. We would get so frustrated with her because she would just appear at the end of our bed and stare at us. It took me a week to realize that she had no idea what she was doing. We've been able to study her sleepwalking pattern and now know that she does it most often when she feels anxious. Just the other night she walked into our room with her comforter and sheet. We're not sure why but I thought it was hilarious. She had no recollection of it in the morning.
Next in the restless sleeper category is Catherine. She has never slept well at night. She almost always creeps into our bed in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately she has stopped wailing during her walk from her bed to ours. That was always an adrenaline rush. Now she sneaks in, gets settled and promptly starts grinding her teeth...LOUDLY. Me being another restless sleeper cannot tolerate this. Mark even bought me earplugs for Christmas last year so that I could hopefully sleep more soundly. Not enough! So now when Catherine arrives, I exit to Madelyn's bed.
Last in our nightly game of musical beds is Sam. He's the latest one to join the game. For the first week he stayed in his 'boy' bed with no problem. Then he must have realized he could get out so for the next two weeks he would stand at his door and cry at some random point in the night. We added a nightlight to their room. Now, Sam just leaves the room being sure to shut the door behind him before joining Mark and Catherine in our bed. We're thankful for the quiet.
Our nightly dance will surely evolve when the baby arrives in a month or so. I refuse to leave my bed when there's a newborn next to it and I also refuse to sleep with a teeth grinding preschooler. I think Mark is going to have his hands full! Sorry, hon!
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