Wait. Let me clear something up. This is NOT a post about what you’re thinking. Oh, no, no, no, no, this is about real life – our nights with 3 children, ages 3 and under – and the myriad of combinations and locations in which you could find any of the 5 of us, on any given night.

House-Rules-for-Musical-Mattresses

There are the nights that the oldest gets to our bed first and we let her snuggle in. There are also the nights that one of the twins can’t sleep, so we wedge her between us in the hopes that she doesn’t fall off the bed while we doze off until she’s back to sleep. There are nights that the oldest get to us first, and then a twin wakes up. Inevitably, my husband or I head to the guest bed (or the glider that also reclines) with said twin while the other stays in our bed with the oldest. Or the nights that one of us ends up in the oldest’s bed (with or without a child), and our bed makes it through the night with one occupant. And then there are the nights that we have the oldest in our bed and a twin (or two) in the pack ‘n play next to our bed.

Because of these nightly shenanigans, we have inadvertently established some house rules to keep some sense of sanity.

House Rule #1 – Keep as many humans asleep as possible –

If that means multiple combinations of people are sleeping in various locations – bed, couch, glider, pack ‘n play, etc… – then so be it. By the way, for the sake of the rest of this post, we obviously don’t mind if our children to sleep in our bed. Debating that is another post entirely, so no need to argue it here. It is what it is.

House Rules for Musical Mattresses

House Rule #2 – Two children cannot sleep through the night in our bed.

Whoever gets to our bed first is the winner for the night. The consolation prize is that you probably still get a parent, however, it will be in your bed , the guest bed or the glider.

House Rule #3 – If you have the stomach flu and need extra snuggles, you will get them.

But you will not be in our bed. You will be snuggled with mom or dad in a towel-covered couch or glider until it subsides. Or you will be in your own bed, probably with a towel-covered mom or dad.

House Rule #4 – Persistent middle-of-the-night antics will earn you a trip to the pack ‘n play.

When they are so disruptive that you cannot sleep in the same room as your sister and when they are so disruptive that your parents cannot successfully keep you wedged between them, you are going in the dreaded pack ‘n play. It will be close to our bed, but it will not be close enough that you can use your recently-discovered climbing skills to launch yourself back in to our bed. (If it sounds like this rule pertains to one child in particular, that’s because it does.)

House Rules for Musical Mattresses

There is, very rarely, the night when it’s just my husband and I in our bed. Yup, no kids, everyone sleeps through the night and it.is.glorious. Except for the yellow lab. Did I mention her? Oh, well, she’s slept at the foot of our bed since before we had kids. And continues to do so.  If only we could find a way to get her to stay in that dang pack ‘n play, maybe we’d reconsider rule #2.



 

4 COMMENTS

  1. This is so funny! I can totally relate. Makenzie usually makes it until about 4:00 or 5:00 in her own bed, then comes running for ours. Then of course, Trent comes shortly after her and it’s all 4 of us in a queen size bed! I’ve recently started bargaining that if they can stay in their own beds every night for a week they’ll get a brand new toy. Makenzie is shooting for an Elsa castle but, the usual 4am wake up call came last night, so she’ll have to start over 😉

    • We are also in a Queen bed…though if it was a King, I fear we’d end up with all 3 in there every night!!! I’m already nervous for the day the twins figure out how to get out of their cribs, so I’ll have to keep the new toy bargain idea for when the time comes – thank you! 🙂

  2. Loved this! While we only have 2, they “share” a room and, well, one of them doesn’t sleep. We played musical mattresses for about 20 months 😅.

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