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Who's bed is it anyway?By Maria Bailey It finally happened last night. The moment I've been dreading. It was 2:51 a.m. when the Bailey household was rocked! I slept as soundly as you can with the leg of a five year old in your side. My husband was also asleep somewhere on the other side of our birth control, I mean five year old. As a mother, you know that we all have a sixth sense. It's the sense that makes it possible to detect someone staring at you even when you are sleeping. I'm sure you know the feeling. You are sleeping and suddenly you get the feeling that someone if watching you sleep. You open your eyes and there standing nose to nose with you is a child's face. A child that has gotten out of bed because of a bad dream or the need for water. I consider myself a lucky mom because unlike some of my friend's children, mine do not nudge me or say, "mommy wake up." No, my kids just stand there in front of me until my sixth sense kicks in. So last night at 2:51 a.m., I woke up. I knew it wasn't my 5 year old because I could still feel his foot in my side. It was probably one of my six year olds needing a drink. As I opened my eyes, the house rocked. Standing in front of me was my 20-month-old daughter. The same daughter who until this moment slept in a crib. The same daughter who was my saving grace in the fight for a full night sleep. She was the only one of my four children I could count on to be contained in a bed for the entire night. Now as we looked eye to eye at each other in the middle of the night, I realized that she had broken out. A feeling of distress flowed through every vein in my body. Now what? I'm not good at making strategic decisions at 2:51 in the morning that's the reason I already have a child in my bed. I make decisions all day in business -- I can't do it at night too. I did know one thing though: another person could not fit in our bed. So I took her and her Pikachu pillow back to her crib. I rubbed her back and prayed she'd stay there. The plan worked for nine minutes. Nine minutes, sleep experts will tell you, is just outside the threshold for when a person falls into a deep sleep. Technically, I had just entered the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of my sleep. My sixth sense kicked in again. There she was holding Pikachu staring at me. Now, anyone who knows me, knows I have an overabundance of energy but at 3:02 a.m., that energy was gone. I just couldn't find the energy to repeat the "crib-return" routine. So like I did with her three predecessors, I pulled her into my bed. There we were my husband, my five year old, Pikachu, my daughter and me clinging to the edge of the mattress. There are some things a mom gets used to doing in the night like sleeping on the edge of the bed, being kicked in the head by sleeping children who squirm and tolerating the faint smell of urine from a diaper. As we all drifted off to sleep, I felt sorry for my son who would find out in the morning that he must graduate from our bed to make room for his younger sister. He wasn't going to be happy but honestly, it was time. I also felt sorry for my husband who has been trying to win the "make them sleep in their own bed" war for seven years. Just when he thought we weren't going to repeat the parenting mistakes of the past, he's sleeping with Pikachu! So as I type this diary entry a little groggy from the lack of sleep, I wonder what tonight holds for the battle of the Bailey bed. I'll have to let you know because I'm sure it won't be anything I expect. I've been a mother for long enough to know that you can't predict the behavior of your children. You can just pray, teach and hope. Sleep well tonight! Share your thoughts on our message board or email Maria.
Also see: Maria Bailey is the CEO and founder of BlueSuitMom.com and a mother of four children under the age of seven.
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