We had a decent round of storms last night around 1:30am. The rain was pattering against the window so hard, at times I wondered if the window would break. The sky lit up with streaks of lightning, giving light to the early morning hour, more light than normal at that hour. The thunder cracked as the storm moved through, and it was clear we were in the middle of a nice storm. Now, as any parent knows, you don't just hear a storm in the middle of the night, roll over, and fall back asleep as the storm dies down. No, no no. Instead, with the first loud crack of thunder, you hear a scared voice from the other room, "Mommy, mommy." Hey, I'm scared sometimes when I hear storms like this- why wouldn't a 2 yr. old be scared, too? I went into Kaden's room to try and console him, which is very difficult when (a) you're barely awake and confused and are finding it hard to see without your contacts in, and (b) your 2 yr. old keeps hearing the storm and there is no consoling until the storm is over. So, I resorted to the usual line that comes out of my mouth when there is no other rational thing to say at that time in the morning....."Do you want to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed?" Now, let me tell all of you future parents out there a tip. You don't want to do this often, as it may become a habit (like it kind of did when Kaden was sick a couple of months ago and the only way to get him to sleep through the night was to let him sleep in our bed). HOWEVER, it's hard to think rationally in the middle of the night. All you want to do is to calm your child, and mostly, get back to sleep yourself! So you resort to putting your child in bed with you.
Needless to say, Kaden fell right asleep as he snuggled right between Andy and I (good thing we have a King bed), and we all fell asleep as the storm died off. You would think this would be the happy ending to the story. Um, no. What people don't often tell you is that your child takes over the bed. Suddenly they are laying across you and your husband, or their arm is in your face, and you just lay there not wanting to move for fear of waking your child. At 3:30am, when a hand suddenly came out of nowhere and punched me in the eye, my sleeping child made a nice trip back to his crib where he slept soundly until 7am.
Let me say another thing about this. Usually we move Kaden back to his crib once he has settled down in our bed- again, we don't want to make habits. And it usually works out fine. Another thing. Being woken up by a punch to your face is quite startling in the middle of the night. You're enjoying your rest and then... BOOM! Elbow to the stomach, hand to the face... you get the idea. At first your reaction is "AH.... what is happening?!?" Then you realize it's your 2 yr. old, enjoying his sleep in your bed (How do they sleep in some of those positions?!?). And while it is frustrating at times, I wouldn't change it for the world. What's better than enjoying cuddles with your little boy while he sleeps soundly? Before you know it, he won't want to cuddle anymore, so I'm taking it while I can.
