Sunday, December 28, 2008

Respect Sleep

I have a secret to share. Okay, maybe not so much a secret as a confession. My favorite thing to do....it's not read, or scrapbook....it's not drinking wine or ever better scrapdrinking (do I need to define that?). No, none of these are my favorite pass time, although those are up there on the things I like list. My favorite hobby is sleeping. Yep. Sleeping. Do you see the irony in this as I do live in the House of No Sleep? Years ago....BK (before kids) I used to sleep like I was going for the gold medal in the sleeping Olympics. BK I used to sleep till at least 10-12 on days that I did not have to work. On weekdays I would come home and catch a quick cat nap on the couch. When I lived alone in my post college-pre Joe apartment I actually had a navy blue blanket nailed to my window so that I could sleep into the afternoon without knowing it was light outside. When Joe and I moved in together it would drive me crazy that for no reason whatsoever other then to annoy the hell out of me he would be up and ready to take on the word at 7AM on the weekends. Bugging me to go run errands with him. Pointing out to me how much we could get done before noon. AK (duh) I have even more respect for sleep then I did BK. To this day my son does not have much use for sleep. He did not sleep through the night until he was 18 months old. 18 long months of getting up with him in the middle of the night. For some reason the "ready to take on the world at 7am" man I married disappeared. He started to barter with me for Sleep in Days instead of being up and making coffee at 7am. I tried to tell him that it was WAY to late to start to respect sleep this late in the game....such a change in sleeping habits was just unacceptable to me. 2.5 years later along came another small person who did not respect sleep. She STILL does not sleep through the night. The only difference is her parents are so lazy that instead of fighting the battle (which she would indeed win) we just throw her in bed with us. Long gone are the days where sleeping in meant 10am....now sleeping in is 8am and we trade off days on the weekend. These past 3 days for some reason my kids slept till 730 and Joe and I thought we had died and gone to heaven. People let me tell you it is HARD to entertain your kids all day when all days starts most days at 5am. A friend asked me once if I was really playing with play-dough at 8am on a Sunday and I was like hell yes I am, we have already watched all the kid shows on the DVR. I have however learned of a new way to respect sleep. The nap. No no, not the power nap of my PK days...the loooooong naps I take on weekends with Mallory. Hey, they tell you to sleep when the baby sleeps....they did not specify how old that baby has to be. I nap with my daughter almost every weekend. I don't screw around with these naps either. I'm not talking about the half assed naps that Joe (non sleep respecter) takes on the couch with the TV on. I'm talking full on napping...jammies, in the bed, lots of pillow and covers. I think the only one in the house who respects sleep as much (if not more) then I do is Scarlet. Not because she is 300 years old...she has always been this way. Scarlet has been known to wait at the edge of the hall and stare at you around bedtime....as in "hey assholes, it's time...let's go" Scarlet gets so flipping excited for weekend naps with Mallory that she makes it up the stairs before we do. Scarlet has been known to take a snap at Joe in the mornings when he tries to get her to let her out to go potty. And as I told you here sleeping with Scarlet is at your own risk because you may lose a toe if you should dare touch her at the foot of the bed while she is sleeping....that is IF she is at the foot of the bed and not sharing your pillow.

Someday I will sleep in again. Maybe not till noon like I did PK but there will come a day in my future when the kids can make their own cereal and work the TV themselves. Until then....I will just have to settle for trading Sleep in Days of 8am with Joe and drinking a LOT of coffee.

12 people fed my need for attention:

Kristina P.

I love sleep too! I love Sunday naps. And I'm one of those people who needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night, preferably 9. I am going to seriously be exhausted when we have kids!

The Rambler

AMEN sister....so what your telling me is maybe you and I can have a mommy date and just rent a hotel room and sleep? Cause that sounds like the best time. I'm bringing my comfy clothes and I warn you. I'm prone to drooling when the REM cycle starts :)

GREAT post. Thanks for letting ME know I'm not the only one that feels the love for sleep like you do.

:)

Unknown

I love napping with my children. There is nothing better. It was the only way I got my eldest to nap.

This is such a great post. I definitely respect sleep much more AK than BK. I miss it so much!

Meg

I don't have children but I have 43 18-23 year olds, a community bathroom, a small kitchen, and a laundry room on my floor not to mention some 1,340 students who have access to the building-So maybe I can relate. Haha. Im a Resident Assitant at my University and I haven't gotten very good sleep since I became one. Ah, nothing like emotional young adults, drug enduced conversations, and boys passed out in bath tubs and garbage cans!

Stephanie

HEY! I did read Remember me! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sorry you get no sleep....But I am very jealous...someday I will be complaining about no sleep...but until them I am just going to keep on wishing for it to happen!

angi_b72

I LOVE sleep too! I was lucky though, my first daughter loved it as much as I did!! Not so much the younger one though. She still gets up at 730 on the weekends...but she is 9...and mommy doesn't HAVE to get up with ehr!

3 Bay B Chicks

This is a great, great post. Totally explains your blog, too, which I love as a newbie to your site.

BK/AK: You are one funny lady! Your description of your former self vs. Joe is a pretty accurate picture of myself and my husband. Except in our case, the roles are reversed! He would love it if he could just sleep "a bit longer" most weekends.

As you well know, kids do not exactly make that possible!

-Francesca

Connie

I can't sleep.

I'm lucky if I get 6 and a half hours a night. I can't blame it on my kids, but I can blame part of it on my hubby. He snores. But if I am awakened...my brain switches on and then I start thinking about all the stuff I would like to be doing and I have to get up.

I cleaned the entire house at 5am yesterday.

I don't nap either. Too much to do....

Amy Lemaniak

I'm right there with you my dear. Every time I'm tired as hell, I just tell myself, someday he'll be sleeping in longer than me...

Megan

I don't love sleep THAT much, but I don't like to be tired either. lol

One day you will get your sleep again. Or you may have Mallory sleeping with you for the rest of her life and still have disturbed sleep. :0P

Anonymous

I am Cammie's mom and I love sleep! Every other weekend I sleep about 24 hours straight without getting up. When you reach my age you get to sleep as much as you want! Ha Ha Cammie...love ya!

Gina

HAHA - your mom is funny! As you know - we LOVE sleep here..and get it most of the time. I used to get up at 5 am, be at work by 6 am and then think - wow - I still have a tom of time after getting home from work at 3...but I was DAMN tired and asleep by 9. And in high school when I inherited that stupid paper route from Joe, I had to be up at 5 so I could get ready for school in time...I used to try to sneak in an extra 15 minutes of zzzz's while I waited for my mom to shower. I hope if we have another kid it respects the sleep as much as the rest of do.....

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