SLEEP

I have decided that I need to write a book about sleep. Not a manual about how to get kids to sleep or what medications to take to get adults to sleep. But just a memoir of sorts about the ups and downs of life, based upon how much sleep we get.

Here are a few ideas:

• My children really like to wake up between the hours of 4 and 5. Sometimes it's just to try to coerce us to let them sleep in our bed (which is only a full-sized bed)! Or, sometimes it's to beg us to "watch a show" in Conor's words. Megan grunts, "uh uh uh" and points downstairs to tell us she wants to watch tv, have a bottle, and be awake. These frequent wakings disturb the natural rhythm of sleep and make me very ornery.



• Conor likes to close his eyes in the car and say, "Mom, I am dreaming for a minute." Then, he'll often tell me about his dream a minute later. I'd like to have a few more dreams in my life, even if they are only for a minute.



• When I was pregnant with Conor, most people gave me the advice to SLEEP as much as possible. I really think this advice is flawed because it's not as if you have a "sleep bank account" to store the extra hours of much-needed sleep. If I did, I'd have reserves from my days as a teenager sleeping until 10am every day in the summer. I tried to sleep as much as I could when I was pregnant. It didn't give me any more energy when Conor was waking up 2 or 3 times in the night until he was more than one!



• Another common piece of advice for after you have a baby is to "sleep when the baby sleeps." This is also questionable advice for a couple of reasons. 1st, when the baby sleeps you feel this compelling feeling to get something done. It is a reasonable feeling too because it is the only time you CAN get something done. 2nd, most often when you decide to put your head on the couch or your pillow, your infant seems to have this sense about it. He/she decides that sleep is not good for you because you are supposed to be caring for them at all moments and they instinctively wake up!



• Last night Megan was sleeping with us from about 2am until 3:30am. She was tossing and turning and kicking us, so none of us was really sleeping at all. I picked her up and she was soaking wet -- her diaper leaked. Yes, she WET OUR BED! I said to Brian, "All I can say is 'SHI%&&*' Our bed is wet!" Sleep deprivation is known to bring out all of our bad qualities.

And yet, when they are sleeping they are so amazingly beautiful.