10 Bears in the bed & the big one said: "I'm crowded..."

Oh, wait! There were only four. It just felt like 10. This is where I slept last night. Sandwiched in between Bayan who uses me as his personal heater, Maryam who believes that I am running an all-night buffet and Anisa who decided to join us by stretching out along the foot of the bed after Ruhi took over hers. The girls decided to have a sleepover in Anisa's bed and they were so happy and cozy and cute that I didn't voice my sensible objections...school night...Ruhi is, ahem, an active sleeper. That girls got mooves. Needless to say the sleeping part of the sleepover didn't exactly last, at least not for Anisa who joined the scene in the wee hours of the morning. I went from being squished between two bodies (but at least I was able to stretch out length wise) to having to scrunch my legs up and sleep in a diagonally, horizontal, crouching position (which was actually less comfortable than it sounds)...but it gets better because at exactly 3:45 Bangles jumped onto the bed and methodically walked over my head. His subtle hint that I need to let him outside. Now! I will confess that I am not super chipper first thing in the morning, and I won't be winning any mother of the year awards after snapping at Anisa in frustration as I tried to disentangle myself from a web of legs and blankets while trying not to wake Maryam up.

As Bangles took his sweet time debating at the door as to weather or not he would venture out into the night I began to feel really bad for telling Anisa to move out of the way in the frustrated tone that I did. When I came back to the room she was sitting on the floor beside the bed, no doubt feeling very bad. I, in my exhausted stupor, apologized and had the sense to help her back into the foot of the bed, arranging the pillow and blankets so that she would be warm and comfortable before making my way back to my cramped and sandwiched position between Bayan and Maryam. No doubt some will think I am crazy. Why not just send her back to her own bed you ask, or tell her to climb up into Ruhi's bed. Well, the thing is she is still my baby, no matter how big she gets or how many children have come after her she will always be my baby and sometimes she needs to feel that and sometimes I need to remember that. I am her mother and as such it is my role and my privilege to see to it that she is comforted and included even at 3:45, or perhaps especially at 3:45.

I've decided it comes down to perspective. I could be really grouchy and cross about not getting a good night sleep between the kids and the feeds and the cat or I could be really grateful that I got to spend the night having my own sleep-over of sorts with my three youngest babes. It won't be long before they won't want to be squashed up beside me, it won't be long before I won't be feeding them through the night and it won't be long before they won't even consider snuggling into bed with me, so I choose to be happy and grateful that I get to snuggle them while I do, that I get to see their dreamy little faces as I, myself, drift off to sleep and that I get to hear the sweet, soft, sound of their slumber even if someone wets the bed and even if it means that I am physically uncomfortable and wind up crawling out if bed like Quasimodo. In my heart I am happy.