The Sleep Saga

It's no secret that we have night time issues in our house. It's been getting better. It ebbs and slows. Sunday was an unusual day because the kids were really tired and they were in bed and asleep at 8:15. We had the house to ourselves and I stayed up longer than usual hanging out with the husband. I did need to leave the house by 6:10 am so I went to bed at 11 (which is late for me, may as well be 2 am) so that I could get a good, solid 6 hours of sleep. Six hours is the minimum amount of hours that I need to function. I do not have a hard time falling asleep. I laid on my pillow and was out immediately....

Until I felt a tap on my face. I opened my eyes and my 7 year old was standing in front of me. Big eyes, crazy hair. "Mama," she whispered, "Can I play Cool Math?"  I looked up at the clock. Of course, it was 3:39 am. "No, you cannot play cool math. It's the middle of the night, go to bed." That's when the whining started, "Noooo, mama, I'm not tired." I groaned. She climbed in between my husband and I and burrowed under the covers. I thought she was going to go back to sleep. No. I dozed off for 7 minutes. Then I heard another whisper, "Mama, mama. I need my jeans." What.the.hell. "No. Go to sleep." "But I need my jeans for the boosterthon. I could not find them." "We will find them when we wake up." She didn't like that answer. She wept. She wept for 15 minutes. My precious sleep was not going to happen. She finally was still and I thought she fell back asleep. I tossed and turned and finally decided to get up at 4:45. I was going to get up at 5 anyway. Ugggh.

I got up and went to fix a cup of coffee. I was down in the kitchen and I hear the pitter patter of feet down the stairs. In walks my 7 year old. "Mom, why aren't you in bed?" I sighed deep. "I have to leave soon." She looked at me blankly for a minute and said, "Can I have a cup of soymilk?" I grabbed a glass. "Only a tiny bit. It's not even 5 am yet, go back to bed." She drank her soymilk and went upstairs. I finished fixing my coffee and breakfast. I sat down to read the news and have my 10 minutes of morning peace. Two minutes in and I feel a tap on my shoulder. "Mama, I need my jeans." Yes, that is life in our house. I went with her to find her jeans and started the shower. She loves taking long hot showers. Finally I was going to get my 10 news-reading, coffee-drinking minutes.

I sat down and not a minute later my nine year old walked in. She crawled into my lap and hugged me. "Did you get good sleep?" She nodded. I was glad. At least one of did. That's only 25%. We had bad statistics that morning. My sweet baby. She might be a vampire. She stalks the night.