With three babies and three of them, the best way to run bedtime was to have one of them go with one of the kids. They always rotated so the girls got each of their mommies at some point, but they got them one at a time. Typically, they would all give each of the kids a goodnight kiss before dispersing to take each of the kids to bed. It was Sana’s turn to be with Saki. Mina was with Sae and Tzuyu was with Saya. 

When Saki was tired, she became clingy. She would cling to her moms like a koala until she was in bed and had her dinosaur and her bunny. 

“Mister dinosaur!” Saki smiled when she saw her dinosaur. “Hi mister dinosaur.” Saki let go of Sana to curl up with her beloved dinosaur. 

“Don’t forget Usa-chan too love.” Sana smiled, holding up her daughter’s bunny.

“Usa-chan!” Saki hugged her other stuffed animal. Sana couldn’t help but smile. This was normal but Saki was so cute. Sana loved that putting her children to bed every night was a part of her routine. She loved the moments where she could sit in the girls tiny toddler beds and hold a big picture book open while a toddler falls asleep against her side. The normality of it made it beautiful. She loved how complete she felt. The routine was perfect. 

“Come on let’s get Usa-chan, Mister dinosuar, and Saki ready for bed.” Saki was already in her purple dinosaur pajamas and her teeth were already brushed, but she had to be cuddling someone to fall asleep. Sana wanted to hold onto these nights where her girls still needed her to fall asleep. They were growing up every day, and they needed her less and less the more they grew up. She didn’t want to think about the fact one day Saki would be all grown up and reading to her child before bed. Saki was still a baby for now. That was more than thirty years away, hopefully. For now Sana wanted to enjoy Saki and all her daughters being four years old.

“Okay!” Saki smiled. Saki stilled her two stuffed animals on one side of herself and the cuddled into Sana’s lap. Sana’s back was propped up by the backboard of her bed, and she had a copy of Saki’s favorite picture book in her hands. Saki’s head was on her lap and her body was curled in a fetal position on the bed. Her preferred method of falling asleep.

“Are you ready sweetheart?” Sana asked.

“Yes! I want to read Dinosaur goes to the store.” Saki pouted.

“Okay okay.” Sana laughed. “One day the dinosaur released he was out of milk…” 

By the end of the book, Saki was fast asleep. Sana smiled and stood up to leave Saki’s room. She replaced her body with mister dinosaur and Saki uncurled from her ball and cuddled her dinosaur. Sana smiled and turned Saki’s lamp off, making sure her nightlight was on before quietly leaving the room. She left the door open a crack, like Saki liked it, before taking one last glance at her sleeping princess. She wanted Saki to stay this little forever.

xx

“Sae-chan?” Mina asked Sae, noticing the four year old had buried herself into her covers. “Don’t you want to read with Ka-san?”

“No.” Sae pouted, wrapping herself further into her blanket. 

“What is it baby?” Mina asked. “You love reading.”

“I don’t wanna read.” Sae answered. “i don’t want to sleep.”

“Why honey?”

“Cause there’s a monster under my bed.” Sae answered. “Saya said so.” 

“Honey there’s no monster. Look Ka-san will look for you.” Mina waited for Sae’s little head to poke out of her blanket burrito before getting off Sae’s bed to get off the toddler bed and look underneath it. “Nope no monsters. Just Sae-chan’s sock that got lost.” Mina pulled out the dusty sock to show Sae. She then walked over to Sae’s laundry hamper to throw it in. She then returned to Sae’s bed and sat next to her daughter. “There are no monsters.” 

“You promise?” Sae asked. 

“Pink promise.” Mina nodded. “Now let go to bed okay? We don’t want to not get enough sleep and be super grouchy in the morning.”

“I don’t want to read.” Sae nodded. “I want Ka-san to sing to me.” 

“Oh okay.” Mina sighed, trying to think of something to sing to Sae. She settled on an old favorite of hers, a song called Jaljayo good night. It would probably be enough to get Sae to sleep. Mina made sure Sae was comfortable tucked in and had her baby blanket and stuffed puppy before starting the song. Sae didn’t like cuddling as much as Saki did when she went to sleep, she preferred to fall asleep by herself in bed while her moms stood off to the side and talked or read her to sleep. Sae fell asleep pretty early into the song, but Mina decided to keep going just in case. Sae was a light sleeper after all, so Mina wanted to make sure her baby was really asleep. When she finished the song Mina smiled and kissed Sae’s forehead. Sae was always the most soft and sensitive of her sisters, she was the most like Mina of the three. 

Mina quietly turned off Sae’s cloud shaped lamp before making one more look over Sae’s bedroom. It was all good. No monsters like Sae was worried about. Mina then gently shut the door as she left. If she closed it too tightly she could wake Sae. When she sae Saki’s door cracked she figured Sana was already done and Saki was fast asleep. Mina made sure of this by pushing the door open a bit and finding Saki fast asleep in her bed. Mina returned the door to it’s original position before starting off towards her bedroom. 

Bedtime was probably her favorite time of day. Not because the girl could barely stay awake for long but because bedtime was the quietest and softest moment Mina got with the three. During a long shift at the hospital, she looked forward to the idea of bedtime. The idea of getting to sit down with her adorable daughters and slowly read them to sleep. 

Mina wouldn’t trade bedtime for the world. 

xx

“Saya come on it’s bedtime.” Tzuyu picked up her daughter to get her to stop jumping on her bed. “And your going to hurt yourself. Remember the story about monkeys jumping on the bed?”

“But mama I’m not tired.” Saya whined. This was a usual battle with Saya. She always said she wasn’t tired at bedtime and it took some convincing to get her into bed. Once Saya was in her warm covers with one of her mom’s warmth her favorite stuffed animal of the week she was okay. It was getting her there that was hard. Saya had always been a bit more stubborn than Saki and Sae. She would pout and refuse to do something when she didn’t want to. She was also the most likely to throw a tantrum. She took more patience than her sisters, but she was still a good girl at the end of the day.

“Come on Saya, your tired you just don’t know it yet.” Tzuyu nodded. “Come on let’s lay down and cuddle. We can read together too.” Tzuyu offered.

“I want mama to tell me a story!” Saya giggled. 

“Me?” Tzuyu thought of any children stories she could remember from when she was a kid. They were all Chinese in origin, but she supposed she could translate them for Saya. “Okay. But you have to get under the covers and be still okay?” Tzuyu asked. 

“Okay.” Saya climbed into her bed and got under her covers. Tzuyu pulled them up and gave Saya her stuffed lion plushie, her current stuffed animal for the week. Unlike her sisters Saya wasn’t loyal to one stuffed animal. She preferred to mix it up every once in a while. About once a week Saya picked a new stuffed animal to be obsessed with and join her in bed. This week it was her lion. 

“Good girl Saya.” Tzuyu didn’t have much experience with kids before she had her own. Sure she had babysat Dahyun and Chaeyoung’s sons a few times but she hadn’t spent a lot of time babysitting. So most of her child rearing knowledge were just guesses. When she felt overwhelmed she turned to parenting books, she wasn’t a natural like Sana and Mina so she need the advice of others sometimes. And if she really didn’t know what to do she just thought about how she would treat her dogs in Taiwan. It wasn’t a great comparison but at the same time it had worked so far. Particularly with Saya. 

“Story time!” Saya giggled.