I used to be a legendary sleeper. Once when I was in my tenth standard, my parents left me alone at home and went out for a couple of hours. I did what I did whenever I had some time to spare. I lay down on the couch and started sleeping. My parents came back home and rang the bell…and pounded on the door…continuously…for 15 min…and I was there lying on the couch which was exactly 2 feet away from the door…and I didn’t hear a thing. The neighbors gathered, every one shouted my name. Some were trying to break the door, just like in movies. One went looking for a saw, the grand plan was to saw through the dead bolt. My father was flying in to a rage fueled by embarrassment and my mother was imagining that I might have electrocuted myself or slipped and fell and cracked my skull open and all the other unimaginables. The neighbors were concocting their own stories that involved a teenage girl and academic pressures…even better…. boy issues. Then one of these nimble neighbors, jumped from the patio on to the sun shade, peeked through the window, found me lying down on the couch and proceeded to prod me with a stick. Five minutes of continuous prodding did the trick, I woke up from my slumber and opened the door. The circus had lasted for approximately 30 minutes. This is how I used to sleep. This trend continued well in to college.

Yes, used to, in past tense. After I got married, some one cast and evil eye on my precious ability to sleep and I had to work to sleep. I needed my space, my quite and my blankie. Some time in the middle of the night I would get up disturbed by the rhythmic ticking of the clock and would lay awake for the rest of the night counting how many times hubby rolled over and how many times he ground his teeth. But still I use to make up for it in the early morning, sleep in late and wake up feeling better.

Then came the children. Toddler did not let any one in the house sleep for the first few months of her life. Then the pattern stabilized and I would say things were still better, as she was sleeping in her crib and I had at least my space.

Troubled started when she decided to sleep between hubby and me. I would say hubby is the real culprit. When infant as born I was in a bedroom with the infant, hubby and toddler were in another bedroom. Whenever toddler woke up from her sleep and cried looking for me, hubby used to pick her up and put her next to him and both father and daughter would go back to sleeping peacefully. So when we all moved in to the same room, toddler refused to sleep in her crib. Even if I put her in her crib, she learnt to jump out of the crib. But she went off to sleep by herself, no more sleep time dances and routines. So I compromised.

But this little demon, would toss and turn, slap me on my face, pulled the comforter away from us and pushed it of the bed. She insists that she lay down perpendicular to hubby and self (forming a H pattern) and push us both trying to roll us down from the bed. Hubby has no care in the world, he can sleep with a road engine rolling all over him. But my precious sleep was lost forever. In general I am not the kind of parent who can proudly boast that I have never hit my children. So far infant has escaped the wrath of my fury, but toddler has been on the receiving end a few times now and I have no qualms about it. I don’t hit for no reason, if I do then there is a very very very good reason for it, and mostly its just a one sharp smack on her diapered bottom and if I am really mad on her thighs. 90% of these thigh smackings have been delivered by me in the night when she has mercilessly jolted me out of my dear dear sleep. But she never even knows that I hit her. She has her father’s genes as far as sleeping is concerned.

Only few days back, I commented on Poppin’s blog that every parenting style is different, one has to pick their battles and I have decided not to pick my battle over co-sleeping. Yesterday night I REALLY needed, not wanted, I needed, to sleep. I don’t sleep in the afternoons and I don’t drink coffee or tea (Well, I am not so strict about tea. I do indulge in tea, may be 3-4 times a year. But after every cup of tea, I get very hyper and I can’t sleep for about 3 days) and I was blanking out when I was driving, which scared the hell out of me. And this girl tucked her knees in to her stomach and then plummeted her legs, landing her feet with full impact on my spine. THAT’S IT. I am at the end of the rope now. Now it is war time.

After a sleepless night imagining what will happen if infant also decides to move in with us in our small queen bed, I woke up totally fatigued and craving for sleep. So here I am sitting on my couch, finished a full packet of Swiss chocolates, high on sugar, blogging away.

I have decided to convert the spare crib in to a toddler bed and lure toddler to sleep on HER OWN MAGICAL BED. Will keep you all posted on how that goes.