Where is Kyle Sleeping?

So let me preface this blog by saying that none of my children have ever slept in my bed other than the occasional time as infants when I would fall asleep nursing them. That was a big deal for Mike and I as our children were growing. It is our bed not theirs. Anyway, I don't know why, but for some reason, (perhaps my own laziness) Kyle has decided to sleep in our bed more often than in his.

We have the nightly fight with "I can't sleep" or "I had a bad dream". So after fighting with him long enough, we just started letting him fall asleep in our bed. We then will carry him up to his bed only to have him return, most nights, a short time later.

If I am awake enough, I try to convince him to go back to his own bed, but I know that often, (this is where the laziness comes in), I slide over, lift the covers and tell him to climb in next to me. This has created the precedent of course so that now he wants to sleep with us far too often. The trouble is when he is in our bed, I do not sleep well, and I don't think Mike does either.

I have learned that Kyle is a snuggler. He likes to have something, or someone close to him when he sleeps. The other night I carried him up to bed and he woke slightly, crying. He cried until I tucked a stuffed animal into his arms and then he was fine. Mind you, he was still asleep while this was taking place. When he sleeps in bed with us, he has to be touching someone, so he is either head to toe between Mike and I touching both of us, or he is sleeping right against my back.

So now to last night. Mike and I were reading in bed. I was reading Twilight as I am trying to get through the series one more time before Breaking Dawn comes out on the 2nd. Mike was studying for his green building certification test he will be taking this next week. Mike got up to go to the bathroom, and I felt something move under the bed. Yes, I said under the bed. I thought it was the dog, but I looked over and she was dutifully asleep in her little bed. So I got down on my hands and knees and this is what I found.

Kyle had crawled under the bed and fallen asleep. Of course I had to grab the camera and catch a snapshot. I don't know when he went under there, it must have been after he came in the last time saying that he "couldn't sleep". What was he thinking going under the bed? He must have fallen immediately asleep when he went under there, because I never heard a peep out of him.

I guess I should be grateful that we were only reading in bed last night. After snapping the picture, we dragged him out from underneath the bed and carried him up to his bed only to have him return some time during the night again and crawl in bed with us. I don't know when he came back, but I woke slightly during the night to him between Mike and I, trying to push me out of bed.

If anyone has any great ideas for getting this silly kid to sleep in his own bed, I would be glad to hear them, so please share.