Musical Beds

As a child, I used to play the game musical chairs with other children. Who would have known that now as an adult, I 'play' musical beds with my family! There are days when the 5 of us would go to bed on our own beds, but wake up in the morning on a different bed!

Janelle will most definitely wake up in the middle of the night to come into our room. So she will either end up sleeping on our bed, or Royston will go and sleep with her on her bed. Janine had always been the only one who would stay put on her bed, but recently she too, has started coming to our room in the middle of the night and climbing into bed with me. When Josiah was younger, I would put him to bed in his cot, but somehow by morning he'll be sleeping beside me on the queen-sized bed. With 5 people in the household, imagine the different possibilities of where we can each end up sleeping! Some mornings we wake up and wonder, how did this J end up sleeping beside me? Or, how did I end up sleeping on J's bed?? Our memory of the switching of beds is vague or non-existent because we are way too groggy when it happened. I think no other family can "beat" us in this musical beds thingy!

I have decided that good habits start from young, so I am determined to put Josiah to bed only in his cot at night. And when he wakes up at night to feed, I must put him back in his cot, even though it's much easier to let him sleep beside me on our bed! Hopefully this resolve of mine does not waver, so at least we have one member of the family who sleeps and wakes every night in the same place!

The luxury of a good night's sleep is something that has eluded me since I became a parent. I seriously cannot even remember when was the last time I slept through the night - has it been 1 year? 2 years? I'm starting to wonder whether I still have the ability to sleep through the night if my kids gave me the chance to do so? Even when our girls were sleeping through the night, I was unable to do so because I was then pregnant with Josiah and could not sleep well with a big tummy.

People tend to ask, "Is your baby/kid sleeping through the night?". I think the question rather, should be, "How many times did you have to wake up at night?". With 3 kids, you just need each of them to wake up once at night and you'll be up 3 times at night! I suppose many aunties and wiser parents would frown at our poor sleeping habits, but I seriously do not know what we did wrong. Anyway, we have come to terms with our "portion" in life. And amazingly enough, I have gotten so used to waking up in the middle of the night that it does not bother me anymore. 

With Janine (2 years 21 months old) and Josiah (6 weeks old) both still waking up in the middle of the night for milk, I think it will be quite some months more before we can even think of sleeping through the night!