January 20, 2007
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Survivor, Family Bed Edition
or: “dog farts, pirate breath and the occaisional pee (Roo, of course)”
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I love our family bed, I do. The kids sleep well and they are easily comforted after a bad dream. On these cold winter nights, I know my children are warm. I love to listen to them breathe softly and talk a little in their dreams and I love holding them while they rest. They have a choice to sleep when they need to and this is the choice they make right now.
And this is a good thing.
But dang, it can be tricky to find a spot to land when you come to bed to find two rapidly-expanding kids sprawled out all over the place and two big dogs filling the gaps. If I can find an edge space (prime real estate as the middle suffocates me!), I have a hard time getting full blanket coverage. And while I don’t mind snuggling a dog, I don’t want a 70 lb one as a blanket (when this happens I wake up thinking “my legs, my legs, I can’t feel my legs!!”) So I usually spend a few moments wrestling with the covers in order to wrench a corner out of the grip of my wee babes.
It’s hard work, this!
And then when Trev comes to bed, he takes the other outer sliver and wrenches the covers back in the other direction and unless I have them wedged under my bum or am gripping them in some sort of desperate death-grip, then I am laid bare and freezing my bum off.
ah, togetherness.
I am thinking that in order to survive the family bed sometimes one has to be scrappy.
Luckily, I am a scrapper.
Now, move over and give me some covers!
Comments (40)
Get your own blankets. That’s what I do, and I only sleep with a husband! I have to be tightly swaddled when I’m in bed especially when it’s cold! Or else!
You’re a trooper! It does sound like it’s worth it though.
We use extra blankets, too, although most of the time, I’m prefectly happy to sleep without. I have an internal heater these days!
Yep, you need your own blanket. I’m learning this.
minus the dogs, thats my fight daily, LOL
I think you each need a blanket, LOL. My friend and her husband sleep this way – they each have a sheet and comforter; no love lost nor warmth, LOL.
I was going to say…my bed has 4 quilts, otherwise we end up in the same tough spot!
More blankets AND a bigger bed maybe?
I’m with everyone else. Use more blankets.
We use lots of blankets and no one has to fight for covers.
DH and I use separate blankets in our king sized bed.
Rob and I have our own blankets. We learned that early on in marriage. (We currently have 12 blankets on the bed.)When Liam sleeps with us he uses no blankets bc he is naturally heater-licious.
A wise friend of ours once said… “Pack a spare”….when the covers roll away you can pick up the one folded beside the bed!
I miss miss miss sleeping with my babies… blessed you!
yep! my husband and I have seperate blankets and there are a bajillion kids blankets all over the place because I’m a tad compulsive and neither of my kids like being covered so I’m constantly recovering them in their sleep and they are then uncovering.(yes it has occured to me that I may actually be disturbing their sleep in this manner but I cannot stop) We have small dog and cat and they like to lay inbetween your legs so you can’t roll over or they s l o w l y creep up onto your pillow and take over the whole thing. I dream OFTEN of adding another bed and having wall to wall mattress to fight over
That is hilarious!
Obviously you need more blankets! I don’t miss the family bed soooo much, but I do enjoy the occasional night when the kids are asleep next to me.
Our bed looks like a blanket factory exploded. There are currently 4people in our family bed and I am thankful for the people in my extended family that like to make blankets. Hoping you can lay claim to your own covers and that there is always an outer spot for you.
I’m pretty sure the family bed is what created my back problems. Anyhoo, it’s worth it. We make sure to have three or four blankets and comforters so there is always some form of cover. Of course, when Tot wants to lay on top of the covers, it makes getting under them tricky.
I used to hide a “secret blanket” on my side of the bed for situations like this.
Benny and Sadie sleep separately — I have tried letting them sleep together, and they want to, but they are so restless that they wake each other up. Or, rather, Benny wakes up Sadie and she hollers for him to get out of the bed. So, Benny sleeps in his bed, Sadie sleeps in her bed, and we sleep in our bed, and then at some point in the night I go in with Sadie, and then at some point in the early early morning Benny comes in with us, and then in the morning we all go in with Dan. It’s a system that works. ;D
Oh yep, it’s definitley survival of the fittest. We have a twin futon pushed up against our queen and if things get unruly somebody (usually andrew) ends up in there.
Or you can find an extra blanket and just roll up in it like a burrito. The end will open if someone else wants to snuggle.
It’s a wonder you get any sleep at all!! LOL! I agree with the above comments – you need more blankets!!
Our family bed is usually the same..Except we can’t figure out how the fourteen month old can take up the entire bed….
O sounds like my kids when young…we all shared the same bed… well let’s say we all ended up in the same bed by morning… first hubby….then me…about an hour later one of the younguns would crawl up from the foot of the bed… followed alittle while later by the other baby… each brought a stuffed animal or dolly or truck…. usually somewhere in the covers was a remote control…. our doggie…. my book…. hmmm must say it was nice~~~ precious memories how they linger!
Confession: DH and I have a king bed to ourselves, and we *still* each have our own blanket.
(Does make it a big pain to make the bed…)
ha! I love this post. : ) I love your new page music too, we love iron and wine in my house. Listening to it always makes me want to just close my eyes and be still, peaceful. : )
Oh, this is easily solved! You just need your very own blanket to take to bed with you at night. Or sleeping bag.
Snuggle closer?
Or add some more onto that blanket if you still want the togetherness next to warm bodies
A family bed in our house resulted in my not getting any sleep, bruised shins from the little one, listening to interminable snoring (mine and hubby’s), and my cold backside! So the little one has her own bed, and we snuggle in it every night before lights out. Hubby can ‘t stay awake late (he’s our early riser) so he’s in bed sawing logs for a good 4 hours before I crawl in after taking my Ambien. 25 years of insomnia, and this little blue pill finally lets me get some sleep!
Love your post! We have king size bed and our 3yo sleeps with us but he is always kicking the blankets off so we end up blanketless and snuggled up really close to hubby cause he is a freakin heater! Hubby doesn’t like it though, he just wants his space back. Maybe in a few years
70 lbs? My retriever, Moose, is 116.2 lbs.
He’sa big ol’ snuggle monster. Unfortunatly, he too thinks that he makes a fabulous lap dog/sleeping partner. This he does not however. 
Hehe
Hope all is well & happy & warm & snuggly & comforted.
This is too funny. I don’t think I could handle it!
Yup! Lots of extra blankies… on the queen bed we use king size covers
Brent and I have the same issue but not nearly that many people. we only have the three dogs trying to push us out of bed.
the ups and downs of night life. I have ended up sleeping with my head down where the feet go. and my feet where my head should be because there seems to be more room that way. And on extra cold nights I bring reinforcements(extra blankets)
Sweet, sweet dreams.
RYC: I think my friend would love her Boobette nursing
I have the almost 5 year old still body slamming me,sleeping sideways and kicking the covers off all night long so I know what you are saying. I only have 4 blankets on the bed,its not enough…
I must second (third? fourth?) the blanket idea. I’ve had my own blankets for years and it’s a godsend. At the very least, you can all share sheets and a big blanket, but put another one aside for you. When you join the bed at night, get your blanket so you have some garuanteed coverage.
That sounds a lot like us but separate blankets wouldn’t work for because we like to let our feet cuddle underneath the boys.
Couldn’t you just bring a blanket with you when you go to bed?
Our family bed is back to just me and hubby now, and over Christmas my married daughter, who is thinking about having her own children, asked me this question. “So we were all in the same bed and how did you—you know? Did you do it with all of us there?” Different problem than blankets, but equally important. We had four birth children so it wasn’t insurmountable!