Musical Beds

The past several nights have been a lottery of a lacrimation which has lanced in us a loop of insomnia and musical beds. We fall asleep in our bed, never knowing at what time and from where the next cry will come from. Our hungry three week old? Our teething toddler? From the bassinet or bedroom? I nurse and rock our infant while my husband crawls into bed with our toddler (or vice versa after a feeding). Then 4 am comes round and there's 4 of us in bed after the boys' blaring duet which indubitably is well appreciated by our neighbours. To add insult to injury, not only was our bed conquered by our kids, but my husband's pillow, recently nostalgically covered by his childhood Snoopy sheets, was taken over by our toddler, who after wailing as if undergoing a particularly imaginative torture, fell into a sound slumber in which even the roar of his own snores failed to wake him. It was one of those moments when all you could do is laugh or cry and invariably do both before you pass out and wake up with a sheer fear that you may have fallen asleep holding your infant and dropped him...Now we understand why everyone we know with more than one child has a king bed. Our son sleeps on a queen (long story) and yet he'd rather be curled up with us in our queen bed with his little brother, as if remaining in his bedroom was somehow self-imposed exile. We figured he would change his tune when his little brother exercised his lungs every few hours, but our toddler simply snored throughout the feedings, happy that he was pride of place in the middle of our bed, his brother's bassinet relegated to the floor.

If only I were a sound sleeper. As all three boys snored away, no doubt dreaming of how to conquer and defend the Snoopy pillow, my mind, in mutiny, started weaving plans for the next day...

To sleep, perchance to dream...