I LOVE my bed. I am not one of those people who wakes up fresh after a six-hour sleep, bright-eyed and ready to instantly start the day. I need to lie there, with my eyes closed in silence, hugging my pillow until the very last moment when I can no longer fight it and I HAVE to get up.
Alan and I have moved houses several times since we starting going out, and it has occurred to me that no matter what stage of our lives we have been in together, we always end up the same way at the end of the day: holding hands across our bedclothes and saying goodnight.
(He’ll hate me for saying that!)
In the last eight years, I have dragged my boxes and bedclothes from my one-bed apartment as a single lady, to Alan’s two-bed apartment, to a rented house in the city centre and finally back out to our very own ‘forever home’ in North County Dublin, where we will raise our little family.
If only our bedclothes could talk, right?
Here is what they’ve witnessed so far:
1. Courtship
Even though Alan and I were friends for ten years before we started going out, I still remember our first kiss. We lay on his bed after a night out, his head on one pillow and mine on the other, chatting until the early hours until FINALLY, the pair of us got up the courage and kissed. And the rest, as they say, is…
2. Waiting for babies
My reputation as a real sleepyhead was consolidated when I was pregnant. I embraced the notion that I needed extra rest and got into bed for naps as often as I could. There is no more comfortable way to sleep when pregnant than to completely surround yourself with pillows! One for your head, one for your back, one for between your legs and one to hug. Oh, and one on standby to throw if anyone tries to interrupt you.
3. Baby feeding comfort
There is something so lovely about getting to sit with your baby and hold them as they feed. The peace that you feel when they are that close and content is something you will always cherish and enjoy as a new mum. However, if you are suffering from post-partum back pain, the best thing to do is grab a pillow for your back and another for your lap so that baby is closer to you. That way, you don’t have to hunch over.
4. Major Bedroom Expansion
Our son was a toddler and we had another baby on the way when we bought our house. RIGHT at the top of the house purchases list was ‘the biggest bed we can find’. Our reasoning was that our son was already sleeping in with us, the dog tried her best to jump up as much as possible and we were in no doubt that the new baby would join the gang. We did manage to get a super king-size bed in the door and then of course had to buy seven pillows to go with it.
5. Toddler acrobatics
Even on the nights when you make sure that your child is sleeping in between his parents for safety, he still somehow manages to wriggle his way to the edge and find his way to the floor. I am always freaked out by this in case he really hurts himself, but rather than resorting to attaching guard rails all around the edge of our bed (we’d essentially need nine of them, by the way) – I pad the floor with as many pillows and cushions as I can find.
6. Bad nights’ sleep
Having two small kids in the house makes for two very tired parents. We just get the baby down and then the toddler will wake up with a nightmare. So we try really hard to give each other ‘nights off’ so that at least someone can be well rested in the morning. But the sounds of those cries will permeate your brain and heart even when you’re off duty. Nothing for it than a pillow over the ears until it stops, your parent guilt subsides and you can get back to that sleep.
7. Feverish heads
Kids get sick all the time, and their main complaint in our house is high temperatures and overheating. We’ll strip them down and keep their duvets off, but there is something about the turning a pillow over to the ‘cool’ side that is so, so comforting for them.
8. Pillow fights
If you have a kid from ages three and upwards, then the likelihood is that you have a mini superhero living in the house. The mini superhero needs ‘bad guys’ to practice his ninja moves on, which means YOU, mum and dad, so grab all available pillows to use as shields, fortresses and above all, weapons!
Got someone in your life who really, really loves their bed in the morning? Make all of their cosy dreams come true this Christmas with a luxury bed set from Silver Hill Farm. Each pillow and duvet is handcrafted and contains a pure white duck down with incomparable insulating qualities – guaranteed to create a truly special sleeping experience!
