Last night, I did the unthinkable. I accidently forgot to turn the baby monitor up to a level where I could hear it before falling into sleep. At 1:40am, I woke with a start to hear Nicholas crying outside our bedroom door, trying valiantly to open it. I jumped from the bed with maximum velocity, knocking into Joel’s as he was stumbling out of bed as I rounded the bed and headed to the door. I threw open the door and scooped up an inconsolable Nicholas, pushing our door almost closed in the process. As Joel and I started to talk to Nicky, our bedroom door started to slowly swing open and there was Dexter.

A little background is needed at this point in the story. Up until last night, Nicholas and Dexter really didn’t know they could leave their beds in the middle of the night. Only Nicholas had ended up at our bedroom door crying once before. Although they wake up periodically in the middle of the night, they usually go back to sleep, or call to us from their beds. They usually sleep through each other’s wake ups too and have only twice slept in our bed due to their being sick and us worried.

Ok, so now both kids are in our room and they want the light on. Dexter looks at me and says “Mommy – you need pants on. You need pants.” Thank you Dexter for critiqueing my attire. Nicholas has finally calmed down, pulls from my arms and heads to the middle of our bed. Dexter follows. They both get under the covers. Joel and I trade glances. We tell them they can stay for 5 minutes and then they need to go back to their beds. Joel turns out the light. They both yell. Joel turns the light back on. All is right with the world. I think we last the whole five minutes just stroking them calmly. Then we usher them back into bed.

On our way back, we see a light on downstairs and the gate open to the stairs. How long have they been up? Is there someone else in our house? These are the questions we ask. Both claim they did not venture downstairs. Joel went downstairs to check, but thinks he left the light on.

With the boys back in bed, we head back into bed. I am now fully awake and in tune with the baby monitor. I cannot sleep. I have visions of someone hiding in my house trying to steal my boys. It’s horrible. I finally fall asleep and awake with a start at 5am. I hear Dexter wiggling around. I head for the door. I have a feeling. Yep – I meet Dexter as he is opening his door. “Back to bed young man. It’s still night time (even though the sun has already come up.)” He wants to rock in the chair. “No – have another blanket” and I put him back into bed with a kiss.

Have I ruined our 3 year run of boys staying in bed? Only time can tell.

Recently

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.