A Family of Floor Sleepers

So I’ll admit to being a little envious of Big Brother.

Methinks the boy could sleep through a nuclear warhead going off.

Recently, he’s also been the only family member who consistenly sleeps IN HIS OWN BED all night, Bab-E Brother excluded.

While we’re “adjusted” to the chaos of having 3 boys age 5 and under, come bedtime for the boys, Mom-E and I are chronically exhausted generally tired.

Fatigue + Lying down to read bedtime stories = Recipe for disaster

I can’t tell you how many times Mom-E and I have fallen asleep at the same time as the boys, ON THE FLOOR of their rooms.

There’s nothing quite like passing out before 9, only to wake up at 11pm or so to the realization that our “imaginary maid” has not done the dinner dishes, packed lunches, folded laundry, or put away straggling toys.

Does it still count as 7 hours if you fall asleep on the floor for 2 hours, wake up and do 2 hours of “chores”, and then sleep in your own bed for another 5 hours?

(Somehow it doesn’t quite feel like it. And the residual fatigue makes it easier to fall asleep on the floor again the next day.)

And to make matters more entertaining, not long after those post-late night nap chores are done and Mom-E and Dad-E are FINALLY closing our eyes in our own bed, Little Brother has a tendency to wake up SCREAMING (which in true chain reaction, wakes up Bab-E Brother).

Like a zombie, Little Brother fervently tries to climb his way into our bed.

After a concerted effort to try to consistently get him back into his own bed, Little Brother “evolved” in his strategy.

We started waking up in the morning to find him either
1. Asleep in our bed
2. Asleep on the floor near our bed, or
3. Asleep in the hallway outside our room.

The first few times #2 and 3 occurred, we darned near stepped on him, having no idea or expectation that he’d be there.

Apparently, he stopped screaming upon awakening, and instead would silently sneak around.

All the while, Big Brother is cozily snoozing in his own bed.

And while I like to think that once the boys go away to college that we’ll finally sleep in our bed all night, I’m sure by then I’ll have periodic insomnia from them not being around.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E