Hot Summer Nights

Eli was gone with his grandparents for a couple of nights and I don't think Noah wanted to sleep in his room alone, so the first night he slept with Simon in "the little boys room". With Tim being home the boys don't have to get up early and go to daycare like they have in summers past, so there has been a lot of staying up late and sleeping with a brother and what not. As it should be.

Sometime in the night Noah and Jesse came walking in our room, hand in hand, and Noah spoke for them both, "Jesse had a bad dream, can he sleep with you?"

Even though I hadn't heard Jesse cry or wake up or anything and it was hot and sticky, Jesse crawled up in bed with me. After an hour or so of that I carried him back to his own bed, there's only so much of a sweaty four year old body next to you a person can take.

The next night Noah slept with Jesse in his bed. Sometime in the night I heard the distinct knock on the bedroom door that is Jesse. I got up and opened the door, fearing if I called for him to come in he'd crawl into bed with me again and it was even hotter than the last night. I couldn't deal with that.

I opened the door and grabbed his sweaty little hand and as we were walking back to his room he said, "Mom I had a bad dream." I didn't really think he did and was not interested in giving in to that kind of deal where he has "bad dreams" and then comes to sleep with me. I'm a parent of the "kids sleep in their own beds, always" camp. So as we were heading back to his bed I said, "I don't think you did have a bad dream, you don't really have those. Let's just get you back in bed so you can get some good sleep."

He seemed not very happy about that and said, "Well, at least can we move my bed somewhere cooler?"

Poor kid was just too hot. I decided the next night they could all sleep in the playroom-we just got a window AC unit for that room, and for the sake of not having to get up in the night again with him it was worth it to let them all have a slumber party in there.

Night three, Eli was back and they all drug their pillows into the playroom for sleeping in the AC. Personally, I'm thinking about putting the air mattress in there for Tim and I, so we can get a good nights sleep a couple of times a week. But back to the boys. I told them they had to go to sleep right away, not stay up and mess around. If I had to go up and tell them to get quiet they would all go back to their hot bedrooms.

Sure as shoot, later as I was doing paperwork downstairs they were yelling, jumping, fighting and who knows what else. I sent Tim up, he spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed. It was the right decision, but I did feel bad they were all in their hot bedrooms. But what can you do?

Maybe an hour or so later I heard Jesse cry. Not unusual in the least, he's had night terrors for about the past year, usually three times a night before 1:00. I always just wait to make sure it doesn't last more than a minute, which it didn't, so I didn't go upstairs.

When I did go upstairs for bed I checked each of the boys rooms to make sure they opened their windows to get as much relief as the night air could offer us, and that their fans were on. Big boys-check. Little boys-windows still shut and fan off-it was hot in there! I punched on the light so I could see to open the windows and turn the fan on. Simon in his bed-check. Jesse-no where to be found.

I looked in the playroom. There is was, laying on the floor, his head on the hardwood floor beside his pillow and his sheet on the top half of his body, but he was sound asleep. I like a kid who can solve a problem on his own in the middle of the night.

The rest of the story is at four in the morning I woke up covered in sweat. I followed Jesse's lead and took my pillow in the playroom and slept the rest of the night with my feet hanging off the end of the love seat. Apparently Jesse is just like his mama and can't tolerate extreme temperatures very well.