Sleep Tight?

Oh, how I love to snuggle with my babies (who are not really babies anymore)!  Truly, I do.  But when it comes to having my 5-year-old crawl into bed at 4am - well, I have mixed emotions

I secretly love it - but honestly,  it's not the best sleep for me :(

Miss M is OK (that is, doesn't come to my bed at night) if she and Mister J sleep in the same room.  I am probably making it hard for her to learn to soothe herself back to sleep on her own since, for most of the summer, one of the kids usually camps out on the floor of the other's room.  When I do this, she rarely comes into our room.  Otherwise, she wakes up at 4am and comes into bed with us on a pretty regular basis.

We moved her back to her own room two nights ago, and for the past two nights, she's come into our room in the wee hours of the morning.  I'm certain it has to do with the security of knowing someone else is there in the middle of the night.  Just having her nightlight and stuffies is not enough. 

As I was tucking her in tonight, she asked if she could sleep with me.  I told her that she needed to sleep in her bed, and that if she came to my room I would help her back to bed.  She was immediately weepy.  And I was sad for her - and probably for me, too.

I feel like it is my responsibility to help her grow up, even if I don't want to - whether it's because I secretly love the early morning snuggles or because I just don't want to get out of my bed at 4am.

Believe it or not, I do want my children to grow up.  But there is some innocence that I want to hold on to for as long as possible!

(sigh)

This is hard work!