A Mother's Sleep

For the briefest of moments last night I thought about blogging about how nice it was this weekend to get some nice, deep, restful sleep. Then I went to bed.

What is it about becoming a mother that totally destroys your sleep?

It starts in pregnancy when you can't get comfortable no matter how you position the pillows or which side you lay on. Even before the belly shows up you wake up to morning sickness which makes you dread going to sleep in the first place.

Then you give birth and we all know what sleeping with a newborn is like. You hear every sigh, every squeak and every whimper. That's not terribly restful sleep either.

Now in my case I had my children back to back so I have stayed in newborn sleep mode for four and a half years. All the children are sleeping through the night now so what do I do? I switch beds and rooms and roomates and disrupt the whole thing. So we're back to broken sleep.

Friday we had a really busy day of being outside and running and playing and carrying on so everyone slept like the dead. Saturday we had a similar night. So it's not a surprise that as I laid down last night I was thinking that maybe the end was in sight. Maybe I would get to go back to sleeping through the night in a deep and comfortable sleep in my own bed.

Nope. 1:30 AM Orangutan calls me into their room to tell me that Marmoset woke her up by singing. Marmie looked up at me and said, "You sing too Mama?" So I ended up laying down with her until she started to drift off. Once all was quiet again I went back to my bed and snuggled in.

3:30 AM Rhino taps me on the nose and tells me that Marmoset is trying to climb into his bed. I check all the beds and she is sound asleep in hers. When I got back to my bed to tell Rhino that he was dreaming he was sound asleep sprawled all over my pillows and wadded up in the blankets.

6:45 AM Orangutan calls me from her bed that she's ready to get up and get ready for school.

And another night is lost to being a mother.

Randomness Round Up!

It's Brain Junk Time! Woo Hoo! Time for me to brain dump all of the loonie stuff that has been swirling around in there and make room for more.

#1. And this is really important. Unless you are a rock star who is jumping the gun and celebrating the big V-Day on Friday instead of on Saturday, I'm guessing very few of you have something to do this Friday night. **Please don't correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to be the only loser at home alone!**

So here's your something to do! Trisha has been hosting some Live broadcasts from MomDot sharing her knowledge of blogging, SEO (and that's not stick your ear out - silly me!), PR work, and other great blog growing tips she has found that work. But this week in honor of Friday the 13th (collective scream and gasp!) she's going to let us take the night off from school work and PARTAY! If you could see the lineup of sponsors for this thing you would be shorting out your keyboard too!

Tuck those wee cupids into bed early and check in over at MomDot at 8:30 Central (you do the math to find your own time)! Actually you probably want to keep checking in all week because she'll be posting instructions and more info about the games and party and such. Here's hoping I see you there. I hear there are cocktails involved! Everyone together now. "Uh Oh!!...."

Now #2 and this is really the end of the brain junk tonight. I am tired! I had this grand scheme to take the kids outside as much as possible this week since we are having some rock star weather. Fresh air, wide open spaces, running...exhaustion, early bedtimes, sound sleeping...Happy mommy!

Can we spell backfire? I'm beat! Yesterday one hour at the park climbing, running, keeping track of children (some not my own). Today an hour in the front yard planting some spring bulbs and cleaning up some leftovers from Sunday's yard work followed by another hour and a half at the park after we picked up the Orangutan. More running, climbing, tracking children that are not mine in hopes of keeping mine from losing body parts.

And silly me! I'm 31. I really should know better! But I went for it anyway. "Hey Mo! Watch this!" 31 year old mothers of three who are not gymnastics coaches have no business doing cartwheels. They shouldn't even smile at the notion of pulling (every muscle in their legs) one off with grace and skill and without (excruciating, star inducing) pain!

Welcome to the Rhino's Sleeping Standoff!

It's day three and it looks like the Zookeeper is beginning to lose her composure.

Day One of the stand off occurred due to a secret hideaway nap the Rhino managed to sneak in while the Marmoset and her exploding rear acted as 30 minutes of prime cover fire. Due to a bit of a chocolate high the Zookeeper caved and allowed Rhino to snuggle in the Lion's Den thinking that the Lion would relocate him to the Rhino/Orangutan exhibit at a later time. Lion never made it to the den thus leaving Rhino in the den for the whole night.

Day Two. Zoo lock down went as planned with all exhibits in their proper zones, covered and quiet. Thirty minutes later the Zookeeper stubbed her toe on a fleece covered "rock" that had managed to work HIMSELF from the Rhino/Orangutan exhibit into the middle of the hallway. After another 30 minutes of Lion snuggling and negotiation, the Rhino ended up...in the den. Again with the intentions of relocating him. Again, did not happen.

And here we are at Day Three of Rhino's Sleeping Standoff. We are at 10:32 PM and he is actively exploring the activity area of the Zoo without so much as a shadow of bloodshot in his eye. Sound effects are still in full effect and he has converted the activity area resting apparatus (aka playroom couch) into four carefully spaced landing zones for his imaginary kangaroo friend.

Send coffee. This Zookeeper is going to need it!

Mom Tip #42

Naps are wonderful but time them with care!

Here at Zoo Suburbia things tend to hit critical mass from time to time. Our options when this happens are to either tolerate the incomprehensible screaming and wailing and gnash our own teeth or put some people in crash mode (full blown nap).

Yesterday we picked Mo up from school, ran by the grocery store and headed for home. I thought all was well until The Boy hit the door between the garage and the house. I don’t know what happened or who started it but it was ugly. There was serious screaming from Tuck and Munch and to this moment I have no idea what it was all about. Off to bed. Now here’s the problem. Critical mass didn’t hit until 4. With Munch that’s no big deal; she can take a nap at 4 and still go down for bed at the normal time. She plays pretty hard.

Tuck? Not so much! He went down for his nap and try as I might there was no waking him before 5. The rest of the evening was delightful with minimal fighting but then it was time to go to bed. Talking, talking, books, more talking. There was no end in sight. At 9:30 he came to tell me that Mo hit him. Could that be because she wanted to sleep and you were in her face? “Well, yeah.” Come help me pack lunches.

He talked me through packing lunches. Let’s go brush teeth and get Mom ready for bed. He talked me through that including a discussion on why Mommy has to take her “no baby medicine.” “Yeah we don’t want another Meghan!” Let’s go make the coffee. He talked me through that. Do you need to go potty? This is where I learned that when “the peeps” don’t want to come out it means they aren’t home. They went to the grocery store. I was exhausted so I asked. What do peeps buy at the grocery store? “Food, you silly goose!” What do peeps eat? (I was REALLY tired) “More peeps!” Please son! Can we go to bed?

So I let him snuggle with me in my bed but no snuggles were to be had until we sang The Little Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly. Then I tried to “pretend” I was asleep to encourage him to do the same. Next thing I knew there were toes up my nose. “Smell my feet Mom!” I don’t know what time he finally fell asleep. He was still talking about feet and peeps and coffee when I lost it for the night.

I do know that the peeps got back from the grocery store somewhere around 2:30 this morning. It happened on Daddy’s side of the bed which I heard about pretty promptly but since it wasn’t my side I made a mental note to just sleep really still.

Go ahead. Get those naps in – just make sure you time them early enough in the day. Or take a nap with them!