Sometime in the last few months, Emma started coming into our room in the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t tell you when this started happening exactly other than to say it was sometime after Charlotte was born. November maybe? I don’t know if having a new baby in the house was a factor or if the timing was just coincidental. Either way, it started happening.
At first, I was pretty annoyed. For months prior, she had obediently stayed in her room until her tot clock turned green at 7 a.m. “This is unacceptable,” I thought to myself. “I need to nip this in the bud.”
But slowly, as the early morning appearances continued, I stopped caring about it so much. I started thinking that maybe it’s nice for her to have that little bit of time with just Jose and me while Charlotte is still off in her crib in another room. It’s heartwarming that she likes to come in and jump in bed to snuggle.
(It helps that she goes to Jose’s side of the bed — ha! — even though I usually wake up when I hear her footsteps coming across the living room.)
She comes in around 6 a.m. these days and climbs into bed with Jose. She’ll often either go back to sleep for a bit or at least lay quietly for a while. By 6:30 though, she’s usually wriggling and squirming and starting to talk. “Daddy, I want to get up.” “Mommy, it’s getting light outside.” And my current favorite: “Wake! Up! Little! Piggy!” said in a stage whisper. (No, I don’t know where the piggy part comes from.)
As cheesy as it sounds, I finally realized that she won’t do this forever. Someday she’ll just stop, on her own. It’s only a half hour earlier than we’d prefer, and on weekdays we really need to be getting up by 6:30 anyway.
The bottom line is that if it’s not bothering us now, why should I try to change it? I spend a lot of time worrying about whether I’m doing things “the right way” when at the end of the day, the only person that has to be happy with my life is me.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve re-learned this life lesson. At least this time it only took me 3 months!
Love this story. I always question if what I am doing is the “right” thing. I need to remember to do the things that make our family happy and not worry about what others think. Can’t wait to catch up in April.
That photo is so adorable.
What size bed do you guys have? We cannot really sleep comfortably with a kid with us in our queen.
We have a king. Plenty of room for 2 adults plus kid, although if it turns into 2 adults + 2 kids when Charlotte gets mobile we may have a problem. 😉
We have been thinking of a king but I’ve been hesitant that it’ll be too big in our room. It sure would be nice for when Bri insists on sleeping over, though.
I like your conclusion in that she won’t do it forever. I remember Noble Dillard telling me to keep putting all of you to bed until you didn’t want it anymore and I liked his advice.