Bed Sharing

Out of the great need to save my sanity I have started bed sharing with my children. If you know me I swore I would never do this, like every mother out there that says the same thing to one thing or another. Yes, yes get your laughter in, I’ll wait.

Done now?

Terrific.

Whelp, I’m doing it… bed sharing that is. Meaning I have one child or both in bed sleeping with me. There is so much controversy in regards to this sleep practice; and I won’t be going into any of them, as long as everyone has done their research in safe sleep, you do you.

MOST of the time my bed doesn’t gather extra passengers until the early morning hours but some nights there are anomalies. Around six in the morning every day my daughter comes in, I pick her up, flop her next to me in bed and she passes out for another hour or so. At least once a week my son wakes up at three in the morning and can’t get back to sleep. He too joins in the bed sharing. Little man lies down on top of my head and goes back to sleep until his sister wakes for the day.

Admittedly it has been a lifesaver in trying to catch some extra ZZZ’s but you also can catch more than that… such as a slap in the face from a wayward hand, some kicks to the kidneys, and the dreaded fart on the face when the littlest decided your head is the most comfortable place in the world to sleep. I quickly learned the best ways to get through a bed sharing night with my squishes.

While sharing with the oldest (who is almost four) I always put a pillow between us. There is a magnet in her that can find me in the furthest reaches of the bed in the middle of the night; once she finds me I cannot escape her grasp. She will edge you out of the bed too, closer and closer to the edge you find yourself moving without any recollection of how you got there. Thankfully after I started to put the pillow between us being pushed out of the bed is no longer a concern. Her bother on the other hand is a different story entirely.

When the littlest comes to bed it’s a whole different ballgame. If your not familiar with the term “spooning” it is where two people are lying on their side, and one person’s back (little spoon) is against the other persons chest (big spoon). Then in youngest and my bed sharing arrangement I am the little spoon. Yeah. You read that right. I’m the little spoon, but it’s more like his chest is pressed against the back of my head where he likes to snuggle me so he can have some pillow too. The only other way he sleeps is directly on top of my face and neck. Holy oxygen, that doesn’t work for very long at all!

Bed sharing I have found is one of those “don’t knock it till you try it” happenings in parenthood that makes the sleepless nights a little bit more bearable. As we all can attest some days (most days) we need all the help we can get especially when it comes to sleep and our sanity.