This morning, or back to the zebra poem

Trevor woke up a little before 5:30 a.m. this morning, so I went in and laid him back down and returned to bed. He never really quit fussing until Stephen brought him in for me to nurse at 6:30. I used to get quite angry when the kids would wake me up at night--storming around and the like--but for the last few years I've been given some extra strength and it hasn't bothered me at all. But, oh, this morning I just wanted to sleep! And I WAS NOT happy about the constant fussing!

Then Lincoln woke up and came into my room. "I like you, Mommy" he said, as he climbed into bed with me. "My feet are cold", so he snuggled up close. "Need your jacket? Oh, there is it!" And he went to get it for me. Finally I roll out of bed and hear, "I want give you hug", and he wraps his little arms around me and gives me a big squeeze.

Sometimes I forget that the whiny-ness shouldn't define who my children are to me. Lincoln reminded me that my kids are sweet with whiny times, not the other way around.

Books & sleep

Last night I was really tempted to read one more Sherlock Holmes mystery, but it was 10:15, so I decided I had better go to sleep. Turns out that was a good choice.

I woke up at 3:30am, only to discover that Stephen still hadn't come to bed. I silently cursed econometrics, and he came to bed a few minutes later. For some reason I couldn't go back to sleep--I thought I kept hearing the kids waking up.

At 4:30am, I heard a yell from Sammy's room, "DAD!!" I ran in there and got Sammy, which of course woke Lincoln up. I put Sam in my bed, went back to rock Lincoln, and then back to my bed, putting Sammy on the perma-bed on our floor (because he has scary dreams frequently). However, this particular night the floor bed was too scary, so for the next HOUR Sammy wouldn't go to sleep.

I finally turned on the light in the living room and put him on the couch, which was fine, because, "The ghosts and haunting things don't like light." Thank goodness!

And guess who was awake. Lincoln. I didn't get him up for another 45 minutes, but I also didn't sleep in that time. I nursed him and fell fitfully asleep on the couch (after moving Sammy into his own bed).

Is it nap time yet?

Sleep

Sleep is something I haven't been getting a lot of recently. Things are on the upswing now, tho, thanks to the sleep book I've been reading and special "night-time underwear". I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep a couple of nights ago! The next night Lincoln screamed from, oh, 2:15am to about 3:45am. But I didn't feed him, and eventually he did go back to sleep.

Which brings us to last night, or rather, this morning.

Let me preface this with an explanation of how our house is set up. There are 2 bedrooms on the main level and one in the basement. Sammy and Lincoln are on the main floor with Stephen and I, since they are the ones who still wake up at night. Elise & Mason's room is directly below mine.

So last night...Sammy didn't wake up. Lincoln didn't wake up. But, at 4:30am I heard Mason's voice below me. I went down there to shush him--Elise was awake, too. Apparently the kitten had been jumping on their beds and made them wake up, and Mason was telling Elise a story. I told them to go back to sleep. Grr...

(Total aside: last night when I went to turn lights off Mason was reading Elise a bedtime story to help her fall asleep. The title? "Gear Up: Marvelous Machine Projects"--it would have put me to sleep, too!)

At 5:30am I heard Mason again (they never did go back to sleep), and then Lincoln woke up. I thought he would want to nurse, but when I picked him up and sat down he just sat on my lap. Woohoo! So I did what my book told me to do and put him back in bed. He fussed a little while but then settled in to sleep. A bit later, Stephen's alarm went off and woke me up again. He didn't get up.

Lincoln got up about 6:45am, nursed, played, fell down the stairs and went down for his first nap 15 minutes ago (7:45am). It's already been a busy morning!

Here's to sleep!