A Toddler in the Bed

On Sunday night, after Hubbs and I had settled both kids in bed, I did the unspeakable.

I turned to him with a huge smile on my face and said, "We're so lucky that our kids sl-----"
He looked at me with wide, crazy eyes, "No, don't say it ----" just as I finished my sentence, "---eep so well."

As the last "l" made it out of my mouth it happened, a monstrous tremor erupted from the earth.

I had violated the most sacred of parental rules - never speak out loud the words of a pattern going well with young children as it's the surest way to put said pattern to an end.

Last night, Monday night, we experienced the repercussions of my gross error and we ended up...with a toddler in our bed.

Good bye Sleep, hello Sleep Disturbia.

The evening started out like any other. Our youngest went down at 7:30pm and then our oldest followed at 8:30pm. Hubbs and I high-fived each other that we had both our kids down for the night by 8:30pm and could enjoy the season premiere of The Voice in peace. We finished The Voice and retired to bed by 10:30pm. All was going well.

I'm 29 weeks pregnant now, so frequent trips to the bathroom is an understatement. Last night, I had already made 3 trips by the time the clock turned to 11:00pm.

11:05pm was the first peep from our youngest, our darling daughter. She cried a little and seemingly put herself back to sleep. By 11:30pm I was fast asleep - even though I'd been to the bathroom 2 more times, by baby #3, sleeping through the night-time pee breaks is a cinch! - but our little girl was full-on crying. My sweet, wonderful, husband got up with her after I incoherently mumbled something about him bringing her to me in bed. He didn't, he picked her up and cuddled her until she settled down and then he put her back in her crib and rejoined me in bed.

By midnight, she was in our bed (and for those keeping score, I'd peed 3 more times).

Her little whimpers were so pathetic. She clung to me like she'd had the trauma of her little life - who knows what nightmares go through the sleeping mind of a 20 month old?! I cradled her in my arms and kissed her face, running my fingers through her hair as she drifted off into blissful sleep. It was beautiful. Sleeping babies are absolutely precious!

It wasn't but a nano-second before I had drifted off into a wonderfully deep sleep alongside her.

It was only but another nano-second before the Sleeping-with-a-Toddler Olympics ensued. Ay yi yi!

How such a little body can throw itself around with such force, I'll never understand! Every time she flipped, tossed and turned, she made these noises that sounded oddly similar to the whimpers that first alerted us to her sleeping-strife. She wasn't awake by any means, but she wasn't sleeping peacefully by any other.

So, in between trips to the bathroom -- at the rate of about a teaspoon per trip since my bladder has been squished to the size of a measuring spoon's reservoir - I was abruptly awoken with each of sweet girl's movements.

Oh how quickly 6:30am comes when one has a restless, wakeful sleep.

The last straw was when she catapulted herself - fully asleep, I remind you - over the barrier that my body is to the little thing, sailing herself out of our bed and heading quickly to the hard floor. Our bed, of course, is FEET from the floor so a fall for her at that inertia would've hurt anyone. I can't explain how it happened, but something in that time reached inside of me and flipped on the "super-mom" switch. Without thinking or even being fully awake myself, my arms reached for her and caught her before she fell. They - my arms because at this point they had a mind of their own - pushed her back onto our bed between her father and me. I jumped out of bed - still in "super-mom" mode - scooped her up and quickly carried her back to her crib. I whispered to her, "Ok sweety, time to go night-nights in your own bed" and she immediately cooperated by snuggling herself down against her pillow. I was back in my own bed before I'd really had a chance to register all that had just happened - and after a quick bathroom trip on the way back.

YIKES!

I whispered the ordeal to Hubbs and got the sleeping equivalent of a high-five from him.

Within about 10 minutes, she was crying again. Hubbs and I had both descended into a wonderful sleep yet his feet began moving before he could think about what he was doing. My arm reached out and stayed him, "No, she can cry, she needs to sleep and so do we. She's fine." He didn't protest, he just let himself fall right back into the sleep he'd found only a few seconds ago, and I was right behind him :)