As rain hammered on the tin roof, I wrapped the doona tightly around me, and snuggled up closer to my then five-month-old son, Cali.
It was cosy sharing the bed with my fiancé Nick, 32, our daughter Banks, three, and Cali between us, with our other girl Coco, two, in a cot pushed right up to my side of the bed.
‘Night, babe,’ I said to Nick as I dozed off.
Coming to with a start in the pitch black, I felt a cold sensation along the side of my tummy and down my left leg.
The kids and Nick were all sound asleep.
'I saw a 1.5 metre python nestled between me and Coco!'
Then something slippery moved beneath the covers, squished between me and Coco. Feeling its cool, scaly skin, I knew instantly what it was.
It’s a snake, I fretted. Reaching over for Nick in the dark, I tapped his shoulder.
‘Babe, don’t panic, but there’s a snake in our bed,’ I said.
‘No way,’ he said in disbelief, as he carefully got out of bed and switched on the light.
Gently peeling the covers back, as light blazed over the room, I saw a 1.5 metre python nestled between me and Coco!
The snake was slowly wriggling between the two of us, stretched out.
Staying in bed, I sat up and put my hand across Coco’s chest to keep the snake away from her.
Banks woke up, and I didn’t want her to be startled. ‘It’s okay, baby, it’s not poisonous,’ I told her as she spotted the reptile.
Nick grabbed his pillow and tried to block the snake from the kids, gently coaxing it off the bed as it slithered onto the floor.
By now, Coco had woken up too. Rather than be afraid, if anything, our girls were stoked!
‘Can we name him Sweetheart?’ Banks said, thinking we’d keep the slippery sucker as a pet!
With Cali awake now too, the whole family was up.
Down on the carpet, the snake slid towards our front door. As we’d been doing renos, there was a five centimetre gap under it that we hadn’t had a chance to fill in yet. The python wriggled its way under the small space, back outside into the rain.
It must’ve come in that way too, I thought.
As Coco and Cali went back to sleep, Nick, Banks and I were wide awake.
Posting a TikTok video later that day about our bizarre encounter, my video quickly went viral.
‘This can only happen in Australia,’ I laughed in the clip.
When our girls bring up the incident, I remind them to never touch snakes and always tell a grown-up if they see one.
I found the next few weeks a little nerve-racking at sleep time, hoping the python wouldn’t return.
But Nick soothed my worries and we made sure to block the gap under the door with a towel.
Here’s hoping we have no more unexpected night-time visitors.
