Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Remind Me Again Why We Bought You a Bed

Caleb is currently going through what I hope and assume is just a phase where he keeps getting out of bed and coming into our room at night and wants to get in bed with us. Call me mean but this is a habit that I didn't really want to get started and had said, prior to having kids of course, that I was not going to let him sleep with us. While I still for the most part stand behind this prior conviction I will admit I have caved and allowed him to crawl up in bed with us some nights and hide behind the excuse that there will be a day when he will not be this small and will not want to snuggle with his momma. Caleb has so figured this out and the nights that he does come into our room he typically comes over to my side of the bed. He cracks me up because he doesn't say a word he just starts climbing up in bed, in fact he typically will not even respond if you talk to him as if he is thinks he is invisible and can only be seen if he says something.

This new phase isn't necessarily a nightly occurrence but I'll admit it is happening a little more frequent than I would prefer. When he does come into our room and it was one of the actual times when we do let him in bed with us we only let him stay for a little while or until he falls back to sleep and then we carry him back to his room. This is partly because we don't want this to become any more of a habit than it already is and secondly because the poor kid typically tosses and turns and never gets truly settled.

As I mentioned we do not always let him get in bed with us and will often take him back to his room and tuck him back in and remind him that he needs to stay in his bed. Some nights we have had to do this a couple of times. Last Monday night was no exception as he kept coming into our room and we kept putting him back to bed. I guess he finally decided he would compromise and at some point snuck back into our room complete with his pillow and blanket only for us to find this the following morning (May 4)....
....break my heart, he just wanted to be close to his momma and dada even if it meant having to sleep in the floor. Last night we stood firm and did not let him get in bed with us so he once again thought he would sneak back in and just sleep in the floor. We actually heard him this time and David took him back to bed. He however turned on his stealth mode and sometime within the night snuck back in only for us to find him this morning asleep again in the doorway of our room.

Now for those of you that are starting to judge and think we are totally mean parents we did let him get in bed with us Sunday night as he woke up scared from all the thunder and lightening. I heard him crying and got up and met him as he was headed to our room. I then put him in bed with us and snuggled until the storms passed through and after he fell back to sleep put him back to his bed where he slept the rest of the night.

3 comments:

Kimberley said...

I cannot stop laughing at those pictures! So funny, but yet break your heart too.

If it makes you feel any better, we are in the same boat. We got Jacob a full size bed and for the most part he has stayed in it. But there are nights when he comes to our bed, climbs in and we take him right back. We don't want to start that habit either.

The other night he was climbing up, lost his grip, and fell back! We heard a loud thud and he immediately started crying - as you can imagine. He was a little shook up, but was OK.

Wonder what he would do if he was upstairs? :)

Beth said...

I'm with kimberley, I could not stop giggling. We go through the same thing with Kate, it really just started like 1 week ago. She now brings her pillow and acts like she is asleep so we won't make her go back to bed. Usually John takes her back to bed and he ends up laying down with her and falling asleep in there. ON a twin bed!!! I kinda like having the bed all to myself.

STEPH said...

I am wondering if this is a Donaghe trait because all 3 of our have carried their blankets and pillows in at some time only for us to find them asleep in the floor in our room. granted it does not happen all the time, but just a couple weeks ago I nearly squashed Caitlin as she slept peacefully on the floor near my side of the bed. I thought to myself, "how can I not have heard her?"
we still wake up to the occasional couch sleeper, but thankfully the bedroom visitor thing has finally came to a near non-existence. It will pass in time, but then memories of it are just that much sweeter.