He Poked Me While I Was Sleeping

                                                     

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I felt it sometime around 1:00 a.m.  A small finger poking my shoulder.

"Mom, my toe really hurts.  Will you get me a band-aid?"

I opened one eye and looked at Knox. "You can't get you own band-aid?"

"I can't find any, Mom.  Will you please help me?"

Without a word, I got up and went to the hall closet where it took me exactly 2.2 seconds to locate a box of Scooby-Doo band-aids.  I handed it to Knox, kissed him on the head, and went back to bed.

Only to sleep for another hour before I was awakened again, this time by the
four-year-old guzzling water at the bathroom sink, then replacing the cup on the counter very loudly and saying, "AHHHH."

Cue the record -scratching sound.  You thought this post was going to be about sex??  Get your mind out of the gutter!  I'm tired.  I can't even sleep, much less do that!

Anyway, another hour of sleep and the baby was up.  For some reason, he's been waking up at night again.  I tried to let him cry, I really did, but he was so loud I feared everyone would be up.  As it turned out, Slim, who almost fell asleep in mass this morning, said he couldn't sleep because Baby E was crying too loudly last night.

This left me to wonder: when will I ever get any sleep?

It used to be that everyone in our house was a good sleeper except for Slim; who, to be fair, has more than his share of things going on.  He does have a mild case of sleep apnea that, due to his cleft-palate and need for another surgery, is tough to treat right now.  In addition, his sleeping patterns majorly depend on what kind of medicine he's on for his ADHD.

He seems to think that he cannot sleep unless he's in our bed.  I mean, we do have an awesome bed - so big, so comfortable.  But every night, he sneaks in while Hubby and I are downstairs, and then I have to move him back to his bed.  But then, sometimes, he'll sneak back in later in the night.

Or we'll wake up in the morning and find him someplace other than in his bed - the couch, the floor somewhere, his closet.  He's been wanting to sleep on the basement couch, but we suspect that he just turns the t.v. on and doesn't sleep at all.

Knox, who previously was a great sleeper, has been waking up a lot lately.  He's had a lot of fears and anxiety since the fire alarm went off twice in our condo at the lake.  I think he also has dreams about Joey.  My heart feels for him.

Lil C' is actually a decent sleeper, except for the night-time need for drinks.  He has such a salty diet, that I'm sure he wakes up a rather dry-mouthed.

And Baby E - the stinker.  He is a very light sleeper.  He doesn't nap well when the boys are in the house, and he is not very good about soothing himself back to sleep in the middle of the night.

And then there's me.  I used to have no problem sleeping.  Admittedly, I've always been a bit of a night owl, but I used to get really good sleep.  Really deep, REM sleep filled with vivid, fascinating dreams.

Now I hardly ever dream at all which leads me to believe that I'm not getting quality sleep.  Which of course leads to craving carbs during the day and the horrible weight gain around my 42-year-old midsection.

I have been in a really bad sleeping pattern ever since Joey was sick.  Back then, it was much easier for me to simply fall asleep on the couch with the t.v. on rather than lie in bed and think about everything that we were going through and what we had yet to face.

Now, it's much the same, except that I usually fall asleep with one of the kids or in my chair with my laptop trying to get some writing done.

I even once fell asleep in the closet as I was getting some clothes.  I just layed down and was out.  Hubby was a little freaked when he found me.

Now, of course, it's easier for me to just try and stay up to "get it all done" rather than lie in bed and stew about everything that needs to be done.

In the meantime, not much is getting done, much to my dismay.

But the times that I do give in and go to bed at a reasonable hour, I still don't get any sleep because little people just seem to find me.

I'm not looking for this to change any time soon as there will always be something to get done or worry about, and I'm facing many more years of little people needing me.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to let some tasks go.

And maybe figure out a convincing way of pretending that I'm fast asleep when those little pokes come at me.


Do you find yourself in need of more sleep too?  Tell me how in the world do you get it?!?



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