WIP ~ The Great Sleepytime Shuffle

My baby slept all alone last night. In his own room. It seems convenient, with the new baby on the way and all, but it was all quite by accident.

His room normally gets used as a sort of dumping ground since he doesn't sleep there. Odds and ends waiting to get stowed or taken off the boat get tossed on the bed. And then there are the boy's collections. Oh the collections. Not very ideal for a weight conscious catamaran (cats can not be overloaded or it impacts their sailing performance) he has managed to hide rocks in every nook and crannie of the boat.  And then there are the coins. And the "jewels". And then just the "treasures" (bits of shell, sticks, dead bugs, broken watches, you name it). So I bought a bead organizer and some small containers and told him, "You can stuff whatever you want that will fit in these. Everything else has to go."

No complaints. He thought the whole exercise was loads of fun. We talked about what to put where, how to categorize them, what to keep, and so on.

Then I off loaded the junk I was storing in his room (clothes to give away, clothes to try on, craft supplies). And before we knew it, the boy had a clean-ish and clear-ish room. And the boy realized he had a radio at the foot of his bed and a case of audio books.

 The momentum of novelty took over and he cuddled in with a good story streaming from the speakers and his blankies at his side and before we knew it, it got really quiet... and he was asleep. So we left him.

So what?-- some might say. Well for a family that has shared a bed since birth and never really tried to sleep train or coax the child out of the family bed, it was a big hairy deal. And weird. And normally my hormones would have kicked in (like they did the one other weird night this happened, a couple of years ago), but I would be lying if I didn't admit how much my ever-widening body LOVED the extra bed space. Oh to stretch out!

It all comes on the heels of The Great Bed Dilemma that arose about 30 seconds after I realized I was pregnant. The conversations went something like this. "Honey, I am pregnant." D- "Wow, (insert happy yet shocked husband comments here). So how are we going to all fit in the bed?" And then when we decided to tell Zach... "Zach, mommy has a baby in her tummy. You're going to be a big brother." Z- "A Baby! Hooray, I always wanted a little brother or sister (insert more happiness). So mama, how are we going to fit the baby in the bed?" It was the first thing we all asked.

The thing is, we weren't looking for an excuse to kick him out. We were all quite snug and happy. And we certainly don't want to force the issue with the baby as the catalyst. So we've been in Palastine-Israel level negotiations for several months trying to create a solution. Friends I know who also do family beds simply buy or build bigger beds. Not an option on board the boat. So we've talked about him sleeping on the floor or our room, him sleeping at the foot of the bed, him having some fold out cot/ bed thing that we could build... something??

And then this. Snoring happily just about all night long in his own room. Completely out of the blue.

He unceremoniously climbed back in with us around 5am. When we woke up in the morning I chatted with him about how it went. He said it was "ok". "But mama, I NEED to feel someones skin next to me when I sleep." *Sigh* Can you blame him? This is why adults couple off if possible and don't sleep in separate beds a la Mike & Carol Brady. Humans need other humans. We need that touch. If we as grown ups are not willing to sleep alone, why should kids if they don't want to? But maybe he wants to?

So we'll see... and we'll shuffle.... and we'll find something, somehow that works for everyone. It's truly a work in progress. So we'll keep that room tidy... just in case.