No Family Bed

Luke came down with the same fever and sore throat Evie had earlier in the week. When I got home last night he was lounging around with a high fever. We put him to bed with some Motrin, but at 4:00 a.m. the Motrin wore off and he showed up beside my bed. He was burning up again -- 102.5 degrees. We gave him some more Motrin and I offered to let him sleep with us. He readily climbed up on the bed and made himself comfortable by splaying sideways on top of the covers in the bottom third of the bed. I crawled in with one leg bent up toward my body and the other leg hanging off the side of the bed so that I could accommodate Luke's sleeping position.

After 10 seconds of quiet, I said, "Luke, why don't you crawl up here and sleep between us?"

Luke, "No. I want to be on the soft blanket."

The pathetic sound in his voice got me and I was silent for another 5 seconds before I said, "Okay, we're going to have to do something different."

Luke shifted ever so slightly and I extended the one leg a fraction of an inch.

I waited another 5 seconds and then sighed.

Chuck lifted up on his elbows and I sat up too. Luke looked at us from the bottom of the bed. Chuck said, "Luke, why don't you get between us and get under the covers?"

Luke paused a second, then said emphatically, "Okay. But if you guys toot I'm going to be very mad."

We both chuckled and I said, "Luke. We're not going to toot and you don't have to put your head under the covers."

Luke whined, "But I want to be on the soft blanket."

Me, "Okay." Luke crawled up toward me and rested his body half on my chest and half in the middle of the bed. Chuck rolled over and went to sleep after he gave me something to cover Luke up with (since Luke refused to crawl under the covers). For the next 40 minutes Luke and I shifted back and forth while I listened to him breath the heavy fever breathing. Finally, I started to doze when I heard him whisper something. I jolted awake, "What?!" He whispered it again, and more calmly I said, "What?" He spoke clearly and said without any hint of illness or pathetic-ness in his voice, "That's what airbenders do on Avatar."

I squinted my evil eyes in the dark at him and said, "Oh, no way. We are not talking about Avatar. Go. To. Sleep."

Sleeping with Luke is not my favorite thing to do. I think this is only the second time it has ever happened. I have no idea how people work out a family bed. I don't think I would ever get any sleep or else I'd end up kicking my children while we all slept together. I'm clearly not ready to open my queen size bed to the brood of three children that we so dearly adore.