Our Family Bed

Throughout our years as parents (16 years now) we have implemented what many call the "family bed". Our youngest child always rooms with us and sleeps in our bed.  I'm one of those nursing nuts that nurses my babies until they self-wean sometime between 18 months and well, our youngest now will be three in June and is still nursing (he tells me he really loves it).  The family bed is NOT for everyone.  It would not work if Wingnut weren't the one driving it in our family. He has always loved sleeping with the kids in our room, whether just to cuddle or to make sure they are still breathing.  I went along with the idea because, for me, it meant more sleep.  If I don't have to get up out of bed to get a crying baby and nurse him back to sleep, that definitely means more sleep for me.  I barely wake up to help a baby latch on, anymore.  As our family grew we would eventually move an older child out of our room, but there was always a tacit agreement that they were welcome to come on in and cuddle with us in the morning as needed.  I'll tell you, too, we have never had problems with night terrors or nightmares.  I believe their night time security comes from utilizing the family bed.

Originally, our two oldest had their own rooms, but Stat Boy kept crawling into Karate Kid's bed at night, so we gave in and moved his bed into her room.  Today, we have our master bedroom and three smaller bedrooms. Stat Boy has been on his own for several years now, but will eventually gain a roommate, whenever Baby Wingnut is ready to move out of our room. The girls are all paired up in the remaining two bedrooms with two girls each to a queen sized bed.  On weekends and during the summer our kids prefer to all sleep together in the basement on piles of blankets and cushions they have acquired over the years (they are all a little weird, I know).

With our oldest turning 16 and our next oldest daughter approaching her teen years, I began to think, possibly, a 16 year old would not want to continue sharing her bed, let alone bedroom with a nine year old.  After discussing options with the girls and Wingnut, we went ahead and purchased a trundle bed to replace the queen bed and we are redecorating the oldest girls' room to accommodate the increasing maturity in our family.  As much as I don't want them to, our babies all grow up, hopefully they'll still want to continue having their slumber parties in the basement.