the family bed

Before the title of this post misleads you, I'll set the record straight: we are NOT a co-sleeping family. The concept of co-sleeping didn't even appeal to me when I thought I was only carrying one baby. I did not register for a co-sleeping attachment. I had no plan, at any point during the pregnancy to commit what seemed to me the equilavent of hooking a trailer up to my bed. After all, I'd done a terrible job of getting the dogs out of the bed before the babies were born. We already had two of them fighting it out for bed real estate: a combined total of 140 lbs of doggie, mind you. Plus I was so incredibly sexually charged during my pregnancy (NOT MY FAULT -- testosterone of TWO males floating around inside me), yet so discouraged about attempting to actually initiate sex with my mammoth girth, that I really expected we'd be enjoying all kinds of post-natal romps once the boys were out of my belly and safely in their own cribs and in their own rooms. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that the romps were a faulty prediction on my part. But I digress.

So the thing is...since the babies dropped their dream-bottle, they've been waking between 5-6am, but not looking for a feeding until around 7am. Sometimes Ethan sleeps through and Emmet can be heard playing with his plastic crib-mounted Aquarium and making gurgling noises at the fishies. Sometimes it's both of them. The desire for that extra hour of sleep won out over the intention to not set bad habits. Brian and I each scoop up a kid and bring them into bed with us, where we can generally lure them back to sleep in a set of arms. Initially, I worried about allowing this practice. How would we ever get them to sleep through to 7am in their own crib if we kept it up? But I've come to LOVE this time so much, I can't see myself discouraging it when they're a year old, 5 years old. 10 years old? Maybe. I have a feeling that my boys will lean toward the grubby and unshowered variety of 10 year old. For now, falling to sleep together is as close as we get, one parent to one baby, and as a family. Having twins, I feel like I'm always putting one down to attend to the other, or to change the laundry, or to finally let the dogs out for a pee. Now that we're done nursing, it's the one time I get to be skin-to-skin with one in an extended fashion. Since I'm back to work, most days for at least a few hours, I feel like this early morning soiree in the family bed is the most important time of the day.

And yes, as you can see from the photo, sometimes we simply can't keep the doggies from joining us. How can I exclude? Some day soon, we'll need to go King Size.