The Berlin Wall

No, I am not talking about the wall that divided East and West Germany for decades.

I'm talking about a pillow.

Sleeping habits of a person are as unique as the individual.  Some people sleep only on their sides, stomach, or back.  Some snore (thankfully neither one of us does that on a regular basis), some sleep walk, some are heavy sleepers, while others will wake at the sound of the furnace kicking on at night. Some need a completely dark room, some like a TV or radio to be on while they sleep.  Some need huge fluffy pillows, others a flat almost non-existing pillow.

Ethan and I have our sides of the bed, his closest to the TV and mine closest to the path to the bathroom.  We are both relatively light sleepers (until the morning, and then for some reason not much will wake Ethan up. Hmmmm...).  The TV stays on while we fall asleep and then shuts off by automatic timer.  We both roll around throughout the night.

The point of my story comes in two parts of our sleeping habits.  At any given point we could be on our backs, sides, or stomachs.  I'm pretty sure we hit all areas at some point in the night.  And pillows.  I am a flat pillow sleeper, and Ethan likes a little more plush to his head rest.  Always at some point before falling asleep, I make myself a little "pillow sandwich" surrounding myself on both sides with a pillow.  One of those ends up between Ethan and me.  He has dubbed that "the Berlin Wall."  A wall which we complains keeps him from cuddling up with me in the middle of the night.

It's not my fault!  It's all Jackie's fault!

I didn't used to need the pillow sandwich.

You see, when I hit the half-way mark with my pregnancy I was no longer able to sleep on my back.  Which I didn't think was that big of deal.  Until I would find myself awake in the morning on my back.  I rolled in the middle of the night and would end up with very sore and achy in the morning.  So I needed help from rolling directly on to my back.  I found that if I put pillows on both sides of me, it would keep me from rolling.  Plus it was comfortable!

Too comfortable.

Because now, with no baby in my belly and no reason to keep from rolling on my back I still need the sandwich.  I can't get comfortable without it, and with years to come of having more babies and actually needing the sandwich I don't see that habit changing anytime soon.

I guess until then the "Berlin Wall" will have to stay up, and the East and West sides of our bed will remain divided.  I guess we'll just have to wait a few years before we can "tear down that wall."

:-)