Sleeping Positions

Sleeping Positions

Let me start of by explaining a few things for anyone not familiar with the layout of a semi truck.

90% of semi trucks come with two single sized bunk beds.

For uncoupled team drivers this means one person has the top bunk and one person he bottom bunk, except when the truck is moving. When the truck is moving the member of the team not driving is also required to sleep on the bottom bunk.
Most husband and wife teams manage to share the bottom bunk when not driving and use the top bunk for storage.
Now the big question is how do you add in the child to a husband and wife team setting to this small amount of sleep space? There are a number of different ways.

Setting one:
Fill in the space at the head of the bed with blankets and pillows and the child sleeps in this space while the two adults sleep in the space below.
 This setting prevents the parents from rolling on the child, the child from rolling onto his/her front while the truck is moving and allows for "sleep feeding" a term I will explain next time. This is setting is good for most settings.

Setting two:
The child sleeps lengthwise in drivers side back corner, the taller adult sleeps next to the child and the shorter adult sleeps beneath the child. Please note, this only works if one adult is shorter than the other. While the truck is moving the child stays in it's position with the off duty adult sleeps protecting it.

Setting three:
Like in setting two the child and first adult share the same positions. However, the first adult curls their knees up so that the other adult can sleep curled up at the end of the bed. This is great for a driver coming to take a nap after a shift and for people that sleep scrunched up or diagonal.

Setting four:
The first adult sleeps up against the wall while the child sleeps on the outer rim of the bed. The other adult will need to stay up, however during feeding the second adult can hold the child, face the opposite direction of the first adult in bed while relaxing and keeping warm under the blankets if need be. This is great for an adult waiting to unload or staying up for time off, particularly in colder climates. It is not the safest position for the child while the truck is moving.

Setting five:
Two parents in bed and baby on the floor. The child is place between two evenly sized pillows covered with a pillow. This works for younger babies that do not move a lot and great for parents that toss and turn. Be very aware though if you have lowly positioned air vents because they can give the child a chill. If you must use this position then tilt any vents upward away from the child and cover him up with a blanket.

Well I hope this has been interesting for you guys and maybe helpful to some.