Nighttime Parenting

When I was pregnant with my first we set up the nursery with cute baby decorations on the wall, a rocking chair and crib where I would certainly rock my child to sleep and place him in his crib to sleep all night each night. When my son, Kurtis, was born the scenario changed in the millisecond it took me to realize that not only could I not put my son in a dark room by himself to sleep at night, I couldn't even put him down! This was the beginning of the family bed for us. This began a trend that ended happily for Kurtis near the age of five. This began what we still have today.

Today our nights look a little different. Instead of one little person in our bed when the sun comes up, we often have two. My middle child, Lila who is near five herself, has her own room and her own bed but knows if she needs us our bed is open to her. Clarissa, our baby who is now just over two, still sleeps with my husband, Jeff, and I. We wouldn't have it any other way. We know parenting doesn't end because the sun goes down. I would never ignore my child who was scared, cold, hungry or lonely during the day and that doesn't change just because it's night.

A typical night at our house can look very different. Sometimes I am only needed once by one child and I hardly even notice I did wake to nurse my youngest. Sometimes I'm needed by two children and have to get out of bed to help a little one get a drink or go to the bathroom. On a rare occasion I even have to help a sleep walking teen find his way back to his room after helping a little one with a nightmare and nursing a fussing baby back to sleep. There are nights when Jeff and I are getting children back down all night it seems. There are nights when we all fall asleep in different places. Sometimes I feel like a million bucks when I get up and sometimes I feel down right exhausted in the morning. The thing is, I don't mind. The way we do things is natural to me. Everyone is happy and cared for and getting as much sleep as possible. I know that some day all of my children will sleep on their own and Jeff and I will have our king sized bed all to ourselves. I'm actually not in any hurry for that. I know that day will come altogether way too soon.