I Can Only Enforce the Rules If I'm Awake

We have been trying to rid our bed of little people.

By early every morning, we've got a minimum of two extra people in our bed, people who stretch, kick, move blankets, and enjoy lodging knees and elbows in inconvenient spaces.

It's super annoying.

But then, there's the cuddling, which I admit, I am a complete sucker for. Because I (and my spouse) are conflicted about the cuddling, the situation has gone on way too long. One of the downsides to this state of affairs is that we don't get good sleep. We are always half-awake and half-aware of which elbow might get away from its owner and whack us in the head.

We hit our limit recently, and laid down the law with the girls: "Starting tonight, if (and when) you come up to our bed, one of us will bring you back downstairs and put you back in your own bed."

There were questions. "What if I can't get back to sleep?" "Why can't I stay in your bed?" "What if my sister comes, but I don't?" "Don't you love me anymore?"

OK, we handled all the questions. We patted ourselves on the back for being proactive and for addressing the situation directly with the girls.

So why did I wake up with a bed full of girls?

My five year old reported the following: "Mommy, when I woke up last night, I came upstairs and asked you to bring me back to my bed and help me get back to sleep, but you were asleep and so went to daddy's side of the bed and I asked daddy to help me but he was asleep and you both stayed asleep and didn't hear me and no one answered me and I didn't know what to do, so I got in your bed and went to sleep."

Note to self: Stay awake so that you can get rid of the kids so that you can get a good night sleep.

Oy.

This is going to be harder than I thought.

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