Don’t freak out on me here. Stay with me. Hear me out.
The year was 2000, and my boss gave me a sweet bonus for Christmas. Seeing as how I was a whopping 2 months pregnant, I knew it was time to go baby shopping. But what to get? There was so much out there. I decided on a $100 double stroller which I still have (duct taped on the storage basket underneath, of course, because that’s just how I roll … cheap) and a crib.
I got a $400 crib and a $100 mattress. My kid would have to have the best, hardest, safest mattress and the prettiest crib. Dark wood with a storage drawer underneath.
Fast forward to our first night with a new baby at home. We tried, like normal people, to lay him in the crib once I nursed him to sleep. Lucky for me, I got me a husband who could not stand to hear our baby cry, and not just because he wanted some sleep. I nursed baby Joel in bed and we fell asleep and never looked back.
After that, the crib was kept for sentimental purposes and because we were maybe hoping to have a baby who would at least NAP in the darn thing, but crazy me always wanted to hold my babies for naps, so the crib sat all lonely.
When I was pregnant with my third, I tried to sell the crib. A first-time preggie came by with her husband wondering why I was selling it and I told her we sleep with our kids and they looked at me like I told her I’m a polygamist. They did not buy the crib.
A family friend ended up trading us the crib for a cool couch for our living room. This is the same couch on which Sam was almost born.
To answer your question in advance: no, we don’t sleep with all 5 of our kids. The oldest boys sleep in bunk beds in their own room and have for about 4 years. Callie just moved in to her own room after Aron got it all painted and pretty for her. Eva sleeps in her own twin bed pushed up to our bed. Sam snuggles with us every night and sleeps on me every day while I read to the kids, watch some TV, return phone calls, homeschool or whatever.
Thanks for listening. I'm not so crazy after all, am I? Don't answer that.
