A Sleep Situation At Our House

So, I need to provide a little background information.

When we first moved to our last--tiny--house, John was not even two yet, and he and Ada were going to be sharing a room for the first time.  On top of that, the way the rooms flowed in that house, noise traveled everywhere.  All the rooms were basically attached to each other, and you just walked from room to room to get around the house.  I assume that is a 1940s thing?  Anyway, I prayed and prayed and prayed about the sleep situation because I knew that would be our biggest obstacle when we downsized to that house.

So, we began by putting John to bed, just a toddler, in his and Ada's room, and we would do stories and prayer time with Ada in our bed.  She would fall asleep in there, and Scott and I would move her after she fell asleep.  That worked well for a long time, but then John started to get older, and it made sense to begin doing bed time with both of them in their bed room.  John was old enough for stories and prayer, and we thought they were ready to get used to going to sleep at the same time.  That also worked well for a long time.

Well, somewhere along the way, Ada began having bad dreams, and she would come get in our bed in the middle of the night.  Our full size bed.  Not King.  Not even queen.  Our full size bed.  The thing was, I would be so tired, that I would just let her, not really thinking about it, until I started to get sort of pushed out of the bed.  At that point, instead of doing the logical thing of making her go back to her own bed, in my state of sleepiness, I began walking the few steps over to Ada and John's room, and I just climbed into her bed, and she slept the rest of the night with Scott.  Seriously, our bedrooms were practically attached, so I would barely even wake up to do this.  Sometimes I didn't even remember doing it.  It became a habit.  A really bad habit.  So, when we moved to this house, and Ada and John were now in a room across the house from us, I thought the problem would work itself out.  It hasn't.  Except that in my large, very pregnant, so much pain when I go from lying to standing, situation that I find myself in, that walk across the house to get into Ada's bed is no longer done while I am half asleep.  I am wide awake.  And waddling.  And in pain.  And, because it's the middle of the night, angry with every other person in the world who is soundly sleeping ;) 

So, one day, with Evie's birth on the horizon, I put my foot down and said, "No more!!"  Everyone is sleeping in their own bed.  This is ridiculous.  So, with Scott on my side, we made this declaration.  And so far, this is how it goes.  At least four times a night, I hear little foot steps coming into our room, usually about three of those times it's John, and the last time it's Ada.  And each time, I have to very violently ;) shake Scott out of his sound sleep to get him to carry said child back across the house to their bed.  If it's John, he is in absolute hysterics that it's not me putting him back to bed, so I waddle behind Scott and John--on average 3-4 times a night--to get everyone back in their proper place.  Well, two nights ago, I had been awake 5 times!!! throughout the night (one of those times just to use the bathroom, which by the way, I go to the bathroom every single time the kids wake up), and the last time, I just didn't care any more.  When John showed up beside my bed, I said climb on up, and across the house I went and climbed into John's bed, and I finally got a good two solid hours of sleep.  But I was not happy when the next morning I woke up and I had been awake five times in the night.  Five times!!!  That's a bad night with a newborn!!  And Evie isn't even born yet. 

But, I am trusting, because it's the way these things usually go, that if we just keep on keeping on, and putting our foot down, and making the trek across the house to put the child back in the bed, that eventually we will all sleep through the night in our own beds.  And one day this will be a distant memory.

Just in time for a newborn to rock our world ;)