Sleeping Double in a Single Bed

Do you remember that old Barbara Mandrell song, Sleeping Single in a Double Bed? Well, my kids don't have double beds, they have twin beds*. And they think it's perfectly fine to be sleeping double in them, even though they are clearly made for sleeping single. How do I know this? Because a few days ago, when the DC region was struck by an earthquake (dramatic pause), only one member of our crew even bothered to notice. I did, however, meet two people who woke up to the earthquake a few nights ago, and they said they thought some military jet was flying overhead, in case you wondered what an earthquake measuirng 3.6 on the Richter scale feels like. All I know is that it wakes a toddler who then needs assistance blowing her nose, and would like a little song and pat on her back as well. I have no recollection of actually hearing or feeling the quake.

No surprise, Ed slept right through it. He's gifted in the sleep department. He can sleep through a child standing at the top of the stairs singing "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy - I need to go potty" as he did about two weeks ago when Helen got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He can also sleep through his son crying because the filter on the fish tank went awry, and it sounded like a train was in his room. It even scared me when I went up to see what the crying was about. I thought a fish was going to be caught in the filter, and I was not going to deal with that because I do not like the fish one bit. And it's totally Ed's fault we have them, which means he has to clean up any fish tragedies (of which there have been none, to date). I unplugged the thing and crossed my fingers that no fish would attack me as I got near the tank. Ed sleeps so well, in fact, that I often accuse him or responding "what kids?" when I elbow him in the middle of the night and request he go up and take care of whatever issue is causing me to be awoken by Connor or Helen. Seriously, dude can sleep.

Connor also slept through it, or at least didn't alert me to his being awake. I would have slept through it had Helen not alerted me.

But what happens whenever I go up to tend to the children in the middle of the night? They request I sleep with them. In their twin beds. There's not a lot of room in there. And while Barbara Mandrell might have been worried about the tossing and turning in her double bed, I assure you, other than the threat of falling of, there's no danger in the twin bed. If I do comply with the request to sleep with my children, which is actually somewhat rare, I prefer to hold their hands or pat them on the back until they have drifted back to sleep, I end up waking up with the worst pain in my hip ever. This is a result of nursing Connor endlessly while lying down at night on my right side. I'm all about nursing while sleeping, but it has totally wreaked havoc on my hip. FOUR.YEARS.LATER.

I was smart enough to purchase my own King sized bed when I was shopping for a new bedroom set with Ed a couple of years before we had kids. Because I knew the little buggers would try and crowd me out of any reasonable sized bed. But I didn't have quite the foresight I needed when it came to their bed purchases. Perhaps in a few years, I'll make the move to bigger beds, or at least trundle beds for both of them. Of course, by then they might not be calling me into their beds at night.

*Full disclosure. This post was inspired by CSN stores, which turns out to be a huge conglomeration of internet stores, including a Toys and Games store. In exchange for linking to their bedroom furniture, I'll be receiving a gift certificate to use in their stores. I'll let you know what I choose to purchase. It's a huge site, with tons of toys.