They Call It Co-Sleeping But There's No Sleep to be Had.

Oh my word.  I don't know how some of you do it.  Co-sleeping is like a middle of the night gymnastics fest where the audience is required to participate against their will.

Bean's been a bit sick with a cold, and for her, colds inevitably turn into a cough and the like.  The cough makes her sleep terribly, and last night, after wrestling with her pillows and trying to find a spot where she wouldn't hack so much, she asked to come snuggle with us.

I scooped her up and put her between us.  I told her to shut her eyes and try to sleep and she did. 

Well, that was easy, right?

Then the Olympics began.

She lay there quietly, holding her blanket and trying to stave off the coughing.  After awhile, her breathing steadied and deepened and I assumed she was asleep, so I closed my eyes as well.

Apparently, when she is asleep, she is taken over by some highly energetic limb flailing creature.

I had just crossed over into that half sleep phase when out of nowhere-

SMACK!

Her arm flew across her body and smacked me square across the face.  I sat up and stared through the darkness at her.  Her eyes stayed closed and she didn't move again.  I gently moved her arm back to her side and rolled over.

SMACK SMACK!

This time, it was Shaun's turn.  I couldn't help but giggle when I turned over to see Bean smacking Shaun on the back over and over with her eyes closed.  He looked at her and then at me.  I shrugged.  Bean mumbled something and rolled herself over.

Shaun and I fell back asleep.

Awhile later, I woke up to find her head trying to burrow its way into my lower back and her feet propped up on Shaun's side.

Shaun and I each had an approximate millimeter of space on the two sides of the bed which Bean comfortably stretched herself across the width.

Add to that her sleep talking and we had ourselves quite a circus.

I moved her back to her pillow in the middle of the bed.  We all drifted back to dreamland.

11 seconds later, (or that's what it felt like)-

"MOOOOOMY!!!"  She was screaming at me with her eyes closed which is the only excuse I'm giving her for screaming even though my ear was about 2.3 inches from her mouth.  "MOMMMMY!!!!  I WANT MY CUUUUUUP!  MY CUP!"  I grabbed her water cup, held the straw so she could drink, and began to put it back on the side table.   "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  NOOOOOOOO!  YOU HOLD IT!  HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

Thinking she wasn't done, I obliged.  But then she rolled herself over and went back to sleep so I tried again to put the cup back.

"NOOOOO!!!  MY CUUUUP!"

Oh dear.  Once we sorted that out, we again went back to sleep.

pat, pat, pat

This time, she reached her hand out to pat my cheek and when my eyes opened she said, "Mommy?  Can we hold hands?  I need you."

Anytime kiddo, anytime.