musical beds

I always find it funny when exhausted new moms ask me with a desperate look of hope in their eyes when their baby will start sleeping through the night.

Ha! I say. And I say it because we have a bit of an unordinary chain of events that happens at our house every night. I like to call it musical beds. Yes, like the game musical chairs......

As babies (in cribs) my kids sleep great. Through the night. If they cry, I leave them, they go back to sleep. They cannot get out of their own bed. It is heaven.

Then they turn three. Or they discover the game of climbing out of the crib. Whichever comes first they get a new, big bed. Oh, the dreaded bed!

Currently I have four children in beds. And one in a crib. This is an example of how an ordinary night at our house goes:

Dan and I are sleeping in the same bed.
Sometime before 2 am, Paige gets out of her bed and joins us in ours. Most nights, I don't even notice that she's crawled up in between Dan and I. Some nights she only makes it part way and I wake up to find her hanging off the end of our bed asleep. Paige is a terrible little girl to sleep with. She is unbelievably fitful and alternately kicks Dan and I in the face. Seriously.
Chelsey comes up and sleeps on the floor on my side of the bed. She only wakes me up to ask me for one of my pillows, and to tell me if she had a bad dream, and she likes me to tuck her in. Easy. I don't even have to get out of bed.
Kami has been sleeping way better since she had her tonsils and adenoids out in the spring... and she no longer snores so that's nice. But she will still wake up, come up to our room and try to get into bed with us. There is no longer room between Dan and I and I am usually fed up enough (from being kicked and trying to save Dan from being kicked) at this point that I tell her she has to sleep on the floor with Chels. She can't do it. She stands beside the bed, just stands there! Sometimes she'll walk around to Dan's side and ask him to leave so she can sleep in his spot. And he will (if I don't beat him to it). Paige's empty bed looks really good at this point. Weird, hey? Every night I hear her whisper those words it just baffles me that she could even ask us to do that..... and even more that we comply.
Ty comes up and will either ask me to come down and tuck him back into his bed or he will sleep on the floor on Dan's side of the bed.
Sometimes I end up on the couch just to get some peace and quiet.

So there you have it. Musical beds. Sound like fun?

Oh! but on the plus side: when the alarm goes off in the morning... I don't have to get out of bed to wake my kids up!