Sleep in heavenly peace?

I. Love. Sleep. Plain & simple. I've always loved to sleep. My mom can function (and be friendly and content) on just 5 hours sleep a night! I actually used to be afraid I would inherit this trait from her. Doesn't look like it though. However, having small children and getting a good night's rest aren't two phrases that are used in the same sentence too often. So, like 99.9% of moms out there, I have learned to function on quite a bit less sleep than I was used to.....I haven't quite gotten down the "being friendly and content" part yet.

Last night, I just had to laugh at our sleep drama. There have been plenty of times that I will start off sleeping in our bed, but will end up waking up in another bed in the house. Last night I do believe we set a Hollaway Family record in the game of "Musical Beds". Here's how it played out:

Tate and Drue were peacefully asleep in their beds by 8:30ish.

(Reese and Drue share a room right now because our 4th bedroom is in the basement, and none of the kids are old enough to stay down there yet. Of course, when we decided to put the girls together I imagined them being cozily tucked into their beds, whispering about their days, and getting along as well as the girls on the Brady Bunch who all three had to share a room. Quite the opposite. We usually wait until we are sure Drue is good and asleep before we sneak Reese in for bedtime. Otherwise, they squeal, carry on, and sneak out into the hallway until after 10pm some nights. Another problem with their room sharing is that Drue is an early riser and Reese likes to sleep in little bit. So, Drue wakes Reese up in the morning and they both come find me to start the day. Drue can't open the door by herself yet, so when she is in her room alone, she is content just to stay in her bed until someone opens the door to get her.)

We put Reese down about 9:15 and David and I settled into our bed to watch an episode of The Office on DVD. We turned the TV off at 10pm. I had just settled into my cozy spot when we heard the door across the hall creak open and Reese appeared in our doorway with her pillow. Her night light had gone off and she was too scared to go back into her room. So, she crawled into our bed and played with my hair. This arrangement lasted about 5 minutes. David falls asleep faster than any person I know and had already started snoring. I kept shushing him and Reese would echo me and shush him also. All to no avail. I couldn't reach him to beat him awake the way I usually do because Reese was in the way. So, when she fell asleep I slid out of our bed and went to sleep in hers.

12:35am- Tate woke up to eat. His cries woke Drue up also and I tried to creep quietly out of her room to get him but she saw me. Just as I sat down with him in the rocking chair, Drue went ballistic and started crying and somehow navigated her way through the dark hallway into Tate's room. David got up by this time, so he came in and got her and laid down with her in her bed.

After I fed Tate, I crept back into our room and crawled into David's side of the bed. But, after Drue went back to sleep, I heard David coming back to our room. I shot up quickly for fear he would plop down on top of me and accusingly asked, "Are you coming back in here to sleep?!". "Ummm....I thought I was. I don't have to. What time is it?", he asked. "1:00am. I am going back to Reese's bed to sleep," and off I stomped. I'm sure I confused him when I said back because he probably never even noticed that I had left the bed the first time.

After this last move, I think we all finally got a few hours' sleep. Drue has a naturally loud voice and I discovered that she doesn't just talk in her sleep....she screams out. It scared the bejeebies out of me a few times. Tate woke up again around 4:30am and thankfully, this time, I didn't have a crying little follower.

I was still not quite ready to face the day at 7:20 when Drue sat up in bed, looked over at Reese's bed, and happily (& restfully) said, "Hi Mommy".

Maybe I could take the bedroom in the basement......