Sick-er-Scared

In our room sits a couch.. well, not really. Really it's an extra large chair. You know, sort of a loveseat, but only one huge cushion - comes with an ottoman kind of couch. When we moved, we no longer had room for it in our living room, and so it made its home in our bedroom. I didn't realize what a great decision that would be. It just sort of happened by default, but it has proven to be of great use there.

You see, we used to sleep a little something like this:



Our bed was (still is to some degree) like a revolving door. Any given night 1 or 2 or 6 children would find their way to our bed sometime during the night. We've pretty much always been very laid back about that, even enjoying the nighttime snuggling, and have even purposefully slept with our babies. Also slept purposefully with our adopted children to promote attachment (or in Mercy's case just because it was easier to care for her at night).

But with our number of children, and since there is no bed big enough for 8, things had to change. I'm getting older. I require more sleep. Once we moved we started telling children that they were more than welcome in our room, bring a pillow and blanket with them and get on the couch. PERFECT! We're still approachable, in sight for scared little ones, ear shot for sick ones, but getting sleep without kidney punches or kicks to the head or stealing of covers.

Grace had strep a week or so ago, and as I tucked her in she asked if she could sleep on the "sick-er-scared couch". Didn't realize it had a name, but yes, dear, it's always available for that very reason.