My oldest is eight years old, the middle child is six years old, and youngest is three years old... and tonight they are all sleeping in my bed.

That is a treat for them, not so much for me anymore. Mostly because as they’ve gotten older, they’ve also gotten bigger and take up more space in our king-sized bed. They also seem to be quite the bed hogs and enjoy, like me, to sleep at a diagonal angle.

When they were younger and smaller, and Cris was at the fire station, we’d all get into bed and watch a movie then fall asleep. It seemed like such fun. Great bonding time. Now of course, since they are older AND Cris and I appreciate that alone time, the co-sleeping happens less often.

It’s mostly Cortez that asks to sleep with us. I often wonder if it’s partially because as a newborn he was all alone for eight weeks in intensive care after being born premature. When he goes to sleep, he creates a fortress around him with pillows and blankets. Almost a little nest. Because of that, I think I give in to him more... because I wasn’t able to comfort him at night when he was just born. Because he was all alone in that isolette in the hospital. In fact, if he can’t sleep with us, he’ll ask if Aiyana can sleep with him.

Aiyana only agrees to sleep in his room because I think she feels sorry for him. She’s quite the independent one these days. Quite surprising because she was the baby who would cry if I left the living room to get something from my bedroom in our 700 square foot townhouse. That’s like twelve steps away - and she’d fuss and miss me. Who’d thought that now, she’d be the one who rather sleep with her bedroom door closed.

Isabel? Well, in all honestly, she sleeps with us all the time. If Cris is at the station, I’ll let her fall asleep in our bed and then carry her to her bed. She always comes back. She has from the first night we changed her crib to a toddler bed. She was sleeping in the room, in her crib just fine. Then when she realized that she could get out of the toddler bed, she just matter of factly came down the hall and climbed in our bed as if it were the most natural thing to do. I’m telling her that once she turns four, in October, she’ll have to stay in her own bed. That’s six months. I think that’s fair.

I’m not sure what the experts would say about me letting the kids sleep in my bed. However, in my defense, tonight I’ll probably just sleep in Cortez’s room since there’s not a lot of space left in my bed and Cortez’s bed is quite comfortable!