Things that go bump in the night.

CRASH! BANG!

What's that noise you ask? Is it the mad rush of getting me out the door as I go into labor? Kael having a night terror? Truong coming home late from work and tripping over a toy in the dark?

No. It's none of those things. It's merely the sound of Malia as she throws open our bedroom door at 1:40am to crawl into bed with us.

What started out as an occasional trip to Mommy's and Daddy's bed for the occasional crying bout in the middle of the night has evolved into a 5 nights out of 7 slumber party.

Oy.

Truong has nighttime parenting duties. Once I'm in bed, I'm clocked out. Any nighttime crying, night terror screaming, bathroom trips, water breaks, etc. fall squarely on Dad's shoulders. Most of the time it's an easy fix: taking Kael to the bathroom, handing out a water bottle, snuggling in bed until Kael falls back asleep. It's when Malia has a rough night that it gets hard for Truong to handle. If he's not too tired, he will rock her in the glider for a while and place her back down. The past few months he's been unable to soothe her and the only remedy is Mom. Since Mom refuses to leave the bed unless it's on fire, the problem child comes to her.

And so it all began.

We've had to leave their bedroom door ajar for Kael's midnight bathroom breaks -- he's not the quietest kid on the block when in a sleep stupor -- and that's pretty much an open invitation for Malia to come a'visitin'. First she'd sneak into our room (our door is also ajar since the stairs are right there) but my Mom's 6th sense can detect her even in a deep sleep. It was a little jarring at first to open my eyes and see her face inches from mine, staring at me intently. As time went on, she got bolder and bolder. Now there's no sneaking. It's like she wakes up, gets off her "Mermaid Bed," and runs down the hall to our bedroom, shouldering our door aside on her way in. I'm taking a guess that she runs since the door slams open hard enough to bang against the wall and almost close again. I doubt she even slows down. She doesn't even bother to stop by Dad's side, which is by the door. No. She runs down his side, around the foot of the bed, up my side, and into my waiting arms since I was just startled awake by the door slamming.

I have to admit I do love sleeping with her. Truong is not so thrilled. She doesn't have the best bed etiquette: she likes to sleep along his pillow, using it as a body pillow with her feet in his face. I'm so conked out that I turn my back to her and let her do whatever she wants, so long as she doesn't fall off. The bonus for me is when she sleeps with us, she wakes up around 7:00am or usually later. If she sleeps in her own bed, her wake-up time is between 5:50am and 6:20am. That's a sacrifice worth taking.

But I have to say: when Blub arrives, it's going to be a huge shock for her to see the co-sleeper blocking her path to Mom and Blub already in bed with us.

Yikes!