Co-sleeping with my Husband

Nighttime at our house is nutso. Sure, we've got a great bedtime routine, and everyone under 37 goes to sleep fairly well, bathed and read-to, before 9PM (My husband, who is 37, never gets to bed before midnight (and I never sleep past 5AM)).

But, come approximately 1AM, the musical beds tune starts playing and at least one sweaty boy ends up curled around an arm of mine or my husband's in our bed. (Before you feel bad for me or think this is a lament for my privacy let me tell you, I don't mind this one bit. A while back I read a particular novel. In it, a mom of young kids was dying of cancer...quickly. She savored cuddling her kids to sleep above all else during the last week she was alive and the images of her desperation at knowing she only had a few more nights of cuddling left in her life were burned into my brain. That was all it took for me to be reminded that I want to suck up the soft salty scent and pudgy skin of my little guys whenever I can get it, as a treat instead of an impediment to sleep. When they crawl in and fall immediately asleep hugging me I think "Hoo-ray. I am alive and well and loved and my kids let me hug and kiss them as much as I want." (I also remind myself: "This won't last forever.").

Back to the nutso part. Some nights, both boys end up in the bed before my husband closes his laptop downstairs and jumps in for his nightly 4 hrs of sleep. And sometimes he can't fit into the bed at all. In fact, sometimes even I get squeezed out before he even gets there. No problem, as the boys have their own double bed in their room that I can resort to. Which I did, in this way, last night. My husband came to bed at 2:30AM and found what we call "a population issue" in our bed: two boys, no wife. He found me in the boys' bed and climbed in. I snuggled against him and then glanced up to see baseball pennants above us.

"Why," I mumbled, confused and half-asleep, "are there fucking baseball pennants on our wall?"
"We're in the boys' bed" he chuckled.
"Oh yah," I said, falling back asleep immediately...for a quick but happy 2 more hours of sleep.

This wouldn't work for everyone, I know. But I have to admit it: I love my family's nutso nighttime dance (and I'd love to hear what goes on at your pad, so share!).

Sarah has a personal and team swim blog called Waterblogged.