Sleep, Revisited

As many of you may remember (or not), we had to stop sleeping in our bed with the boys as it was too disrupting. Grunter is a very early riser, but he's not really 'up'. He stirs, squawks a bit and then goes back to sleep (4am-5am).

However, if he see us in the bed (or smells me?) he cries out and that's it. He's UP. That doesn't work so well in the mommy fatigue department, so we hightailed it to the living room sofa bed. We got a full night's sleep for the first time, but no one is ever going to call this pull out sofa "comfortable". However, when you are desperate, you find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do!

Then we went to SF for a week. Where I slept in a real bed in a bedroom that I shared with no one but my wife. That hasn't ever happened since the twins were born. It was nice. Really nice. I slept so well.

Back in NYC, I deceived myself into thinking we could try it again in our bed with the boys. Nope. Back to the couch. I decided to invest in a memory foam topper and see if that made it bearable. Success! Well, sort of. It's a lot 'more' comfortable and we get 8 hours of sleep but it's not a long term solution. Also, it's too think to fold up in the sofa.

So now, on top of:

• moving the ottoman/coffee table
• taking all of the sofa cushions off
• unfolding the sofa
• making the bed with sheets/blankets
• remembering to get the pillows from our own bed before we put the boys to bed

We have to lug the memory foam topper--it weighs about 15 lbs--back and forth between the living room and our bedroom (where it stays during the day on our bed, adding further insult!).

It is seriously ridiculous and I think probably something that only New Yorker's do! We could've been an idea for a Seinfeld episode.

And....of course, put it all away again every morning.

On the bright side, it's the first time in 10 years that I know the bed is going to be made every day (Chicken is not such a good bed-maker-upper).

Meanwhile, the kids are sleeping great. They are down to one nap during the day now--around 12:15--and they only sleep for one and 1/2 hours, but they are excellent night sleepers. They go down around 6:30-45 and we get them up at 7am. We have our entire night free and they sleep through TV, cooking, hair dryer, sirens (outside), music. We had people over for dinner Friday and Saturday and everyone remarked how incredible it was that the babies never woke up. And it got a little loud! So, I am so happy that we are "winning" on that one.

We've been toying with the idea of getting a murphy bed in the living room and giving them our entire bedroom. This would mean getting rid of our bed, dresser and huge desk to free up the room for their play area. We would have a custom built unit made for the living room where their play area is now. It would include cabinets, dresser drawers and a desk. We've already been working with a studio to draw up plans and get a rough estimate of pricing....but we're not committed as it's an extremely expensive option. But, crazy as it sounds, it's a cheaper option than getting a 2 bedroom.

We don't need our own bedroom, I just need a comfortable bed! I do want the boys to have their own bedroom and I think this is a way to make that happen. We could use our tax refund money and just do it. Decisions, decisions.

All we know is that we love where we live. We are not ready to move somewhere else and we are trying to find a way to make it all fit and work.

One night we wondered if the topper would be just as comfortable on the ground--that way we wouldn't have to pull out the sofa every night. We have the bright idea that the foam tiles in the boy's play area would be 'padding' enough. After kicking a few toys and tossing and turning, we lasted about 10 minutes and pulled out the sofa.

I can't even believe we were seriously considering sleeping inside the play area every night. City living at its best.