Musical Beds

In our house, when children are sick (like they have been for going on 3.5 weeks now), nighttime is a little game of run-around. It's rare that any given person in the family will wake up in the same bed in which they went to sleep.
For example, the other night, after we put all the kids to bed in their own beds, Parker came out and said the classic, "Mama, I feel yucky. Like I might throw up," which he proceeded to do, and also proceeded to have a high fever all night long. I don't feel good about putting a sick child in a room all alone, so Parker ended up sleeping with Neal in the master bedroom. About 15 minutes later, Miles woke up crying, and I discovered that he also had a fever. After a dose of ibuprofen and a little Mama juice, he wouldn't go back to sleep in his crib, so he and I ended up "sleeping" in the guest room. I use the term "sleeping" loosely, as none of the four of us really got a whole lot of sleep that night. Or last night, since the boys are still sick and we had the same arrangement.

Last week, when Audrey was sick, Neal stayed with her in the guest room (thank goodness for the guest room), while I spent one horrible night with Miles, whose top tooth is just about popped through. But not yet. For at least one desperate hour that night,

I was in the crib.

And so goes the little game of musical beds that we play in our house when the kids are sick.

How do you manage it?


image found here