Sleeping Positions I

When we brought our triplets home

from the hospital I had one crib and three

beautiful little white wicker bassinets set up

in their nursery. I think we put them in

the bassinets just for a picture and then

they slept together in the crib from the very

first night. After all, they were used to

being together and seemed more content

if they were near each other. I remember

positioning their little newborn bodies

in a very symmetrical, orderly way only

to check on them later and find that they

had scooted all together in a big blob!

When they got too big for one crib, we

got a couple more and I was so happy to

move them into their own ~ only to find that

they fell asleep holding hands through the

crib bars! When they figured out how to

escape from their cribs, I would often find them all

together in one. And the same thing happened

when they graduated to the little toddler beds.

I don't know why we bought three of them because

they would end up sleeping in one.

A few years later we moved on to the bunk bed stage.

One set of bunks ~ high and low ~ with a twin bed

set right beside the bottom bunk (we were starting

to figure it out, so we thought!) But wouldn't you know

that they would squish all together in the top bunk ~

three big boys on a tiny bunk mattress. Believe it or

not, they never fell out! It was about this time,

four years ago, that I snapped this picture. I had

gone in to check on them before going to bed myself.

I had to laugh since it took me a minute to figure out

where that middle boy was in the dark!

And the story isn't over! We decided that the bunks,

which were very old when they were given to us, were

becoming too wobbly and unsafe. We bought new mattresses

and set up three twin beds. Yes, I even put a couple of

feet in between each ~ nice and orderly like a little

dorm room. And you guessed it ~ they would sneak

together and fall asleep all in one little twin sized bed!

We've since given up ~ scooting them all together into

one huge bed! And still to this day I can check on them

before I go to sleep and somebody has their arm around

his brother's shoulder as they dream. :)

I think the line blurs here between autism and the

bond of a multiple birth, but it is a special

connection that they have. It isn't broken by any learned

social behaviors (most 14-year-olds wouldn't want to

share a room much less a bed!) It's just a sweet,

uninhibited bond. :)