Monday, July 21, 2008

Co-Sleeping, Chockley Style

At the beach, our family shared a room with a king-sized bed. We figured it would be a breeze, since Connor and the other medium kids were going to sleep out in the den, loosely supervised by the big kid. They had a pull-out couch, another couch, and an air mattress in front of the TV. We set up a soft pallet on the floor in our room for Chloe, and we were good to go.

Night one, Chloe was great on the floor. Connor woke up disoriented and found his way into our room. No problem! There was plenty of room for three exhausted people in our king-sized bed. Unfortunately, having both kids in the room meant that both kids were on hand to wake us up at 6:15 the next morning.

The next day Chloe realized during nap time that the bed was the way to go. So for night two, Chloe, Chip and I slept together. Or should I say Maggie, Homer and I- I found it hard to fall asleep over the noise of Chloe's intense pacifier sucking and Chip's snoring. Somewhere in the middle of night two, an adult delivered Connor to our room, again. We put him on the pallet that was still on the floor and tried to sleep, although for some reason Connor kept waking up every couple of hours. Chloe eventually positioned herself perpendicular to me and Chip, so that one of us was getting kicked while the other was getting head-butted. By 6:30 the next morning, both kids were on top of me having the "MY mommy" argument that I documented in a previous post. (This 6:30 wake-up was the morning that they slept in late.)


Night three, Connor fell asleep with the other kids in front of the TV, Chloe fell asleep on the bed, and Chip and I stayed up until around 2:00 a.m. (Gasp!) By 2:30, all four of us where in bed together. By around 5:00, I was awakened by the feeling that I was about to fall out of the bed. I was on my side at the very edge of the bed, with Connor pushed up against me. I had a dilemma- there was enough light coming through the window that Connor would never fall back to sleep if I woke him. So I started gently nudging him away from me until I at least had enough room to lie on my back. But he started pushing me back- in his sleep! So I tried to softly lift him and move him a few inches. This is when I realized that Chloe was as close to him as he was to me. Here we were, in a king-sized bed, with three of us sharing one half while Chip had the other half to himself. Since there was nothing for me to do to remedy the situation, I resigned myself to feeling cramped and dozed off and on until the kids eventually woke up, around 6:00.

Seriously- how does co-sleeping work for people? I know families who love sharing that closeness, and have had wonderful experiences with a family bed. I guess these are people who can function on only three hours of sleep. I am not one of those people! However, I am willing to put up with anything in order to enjoy a few days at the beach. I'd do all that in a full-sized bed if it meant I could go back tomorrow.

3 comments:

Sassy Molassy said...

I guess it's different when they start out doing it as babies. But definitely as they get older, it's nicer when they sleep in their own beds. A king sized bed is huge though! After cosleeping in a double and then a queen for so long, I feel like none of us can even find each other in a King. But what you should have done when Chip had half the bed and you were falling off the other edge was go around to his side.

Unknown said...

oh, Lord, just reading that makes me feel nauseously exhausted. i so feel your pain.

Stacey Greenberg said...

yeah i was pretty annoyed when the monkeys kept weaseling their way into our bed. we've had a king for awhile and it is too small for the four of us now. TOO SMALL. however, the monkeys are old enough to get up at 6 or 7 or whenever, run into the next room, and leave us in peace for several more hours.