When they were babies they would be wide awake at 5am. Ready to start their day. They wouldn't take a nap until about 4 hours later. Wide awake. Alert. Looking around. Exploring. ONE TIRED MOM. As they got a little older they at least got to where they would let me sleep until 6 or 7 in the morning. Now it's usually 7 in the morning when they wake me up but we still have a few 6am mornings. Those are usually the days when I could sleep in, if only they'd let me. If I ever need an alarm clock, I can count on my sons to wake me up like well...clock work.
I've always laughed (a slightly manical laugh...) when parents ask when their "8 month old" is going to finally "SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT". I'm sure I sound either A: Bitter or B: Psychotic when I answer them. Either one probably fits. I'm a bitter psychotic mom when it comes to all the babies that actually allow their parents to SLEEP through the night. My daughter is the only one who ever did that, and she is has just always been awesome at sleeping. (Minus the month where she would ONLY fall asleep when I held her, and the fact that we co slept till she was nearly 4.....but that's besides the point)!
I tell people in probably a more gruffer way than I intend to that when they figure out how to make their kids sleep through the night EVERY night, lemme know. I'll have what you're having because I haven't had a good nights sleep in 5 years. I've never gone a week without uninterrupted sleep from my children.
That's ok!
I don't mean to sound bitter about it...I mean obviously sleep is AWESOME but when my kids need me...day or night, I'm there. It's ok. If you wake up at 4am and you are cold, scared, lonely, whatever it is you are feeling my sweet child Mommy is RIGHT THERE. Come find me, we'll snuggle. We'll talk about what's bothering you. My door is always open for my children. I rarely send them back to their own beds (only when they all three come in and then are wide awake and start fighting over the spots directly next to mom, THEN they all get booted out of my room). If you can't cooperate and work together to snuggle up with mom, and MOMMY gets hurt because YOU were fighting over me....then you can take your keesters right back to your own room. I don't come in their rooms and argue over their beds and end up elbowing them in the eyeball. That's stuff that only happens to mom. Ha!
Usually I will only end up with 1 or both of my sons in my bedroom. Usually my daughter stays in her own room. Sometimes though she'll have a night mare that scares her so badly she'll have to come find me to comfort her and let her know that all is well and zombie dinosaurs are NOT outside her bedroom window trying to bite off her toes while she sleeps, and no they don't want to steal her stuffed animals or make her eat nothing but carrots. (True night mare she had one night, very interesting).
Sometimes, you just gotta know it's ok!
This morning...was one of the most interesting wake up calls I've had for quite some time. Though the time when the boys crawled in bed with me while they were potty training and had both taken off their pull ups in the middle of the night because they were wet, and they got their nakey butts in bed with me and I didn't know they had slipped into my bed, and I then woke up at like 5 or 6 suddenly feel warm and wet and I freaked out for a couple of minutes wondering if I had just wet my pants at nearly 30 years old. Thankfully it only took me a couple of minutes to register that my sons were lying next to me and they had just pee'd in my bed. Lovely. Thanks guys. Good thing I had thought ahead and had started using protective covers over my mattress before my daughter was even born! (You know just incase my water broke while I was sleeping, and so my breasts wouldn't leak boob juice all over my mattress while I was sleeping after my kids were born, or so my kids if they threw up or accidentally pee'd on my bed it wouldn't get the mattress....). Yeh. I'm smart like that. Blankets are a heck of a lot easier to wash than a mattress!
So this morning I am OUT like a LIGHT. I am down for the count. I am counting sheep, sawing logs, examining the back of my eye lids, OBLIVIOS to the world around me.
CLUELESS as to what my wake up call was about to be.
I lay there sleeping deep (probably drooling, knowing my luck since I've been so congested and having to breathe through my mouth all night, yuck).
I see a BRIGHT LIGHT before my eyes, and it wakes me up. Suddenly, I realize I can't move. I'm lying on my stomach and I can't move. Something is on top of me weighing me down. I started to panic ever so slightly. I feel something heavy to my left, and something to my right, I still can't move. I'm starting to become more awake and aware of what is going on.
I hear a giggle, and another flash, well, flashes before my eyes. More laughter.
Marshall.
Me: "Son...waddyadointome" (Because we all know no one talks normal when they first wake up it's all slurred together).
Marshall: "I took your picture Mom!"
Me: *mumbling through my blanket* "Wha?"
Marshall: "I found your camera Mom I fixed the light"
Me: "Whasonme?"
Marshall: "It's KEEGAN! He's sleeping"
Me: (Realization hits that what is weighing me down is my son. And the weight to my left must be my daughter....) They must have all ended up in my bed without me knowing. Keegan must have been the last guy in the room and found there was no room left so he decided to just worm his way up under the blankets and use Mommy as his own personal mattress. He sure was zonked out right on top of my back too! It took Marshall tickling him and taking his picture to get him to wake up (at least for once Keegan woke up in a good mood).
 |
| This would be a photo Marshall took while I was asleep. That's Keegan lying directly ontop of my back, asleep too. We were both out like a light and apparently Marshall thought it was hilarious and just had to get a photo of it. He gets that from his Mom. I'm always doing that to them when they do something silly or they fall asleep in an odd position or things like that. I guess he was just getting even. |
Marshall started tormenting his sleeping sister with the camera (he had taken LOTS of pictures before he figured out how to use the flash, and once he figured out how to use the flash, that's what woke me up because he had it like an inch from my face!)
 |
| There is soooo much I love about this picture! The fact we're all trying to hide from the flash of the camera. My daughter is turning into a little ninja in the corner ready to karate chop the light. Marshall has the BIGGEST grin on his face (and I can see in this pic how much he looks like me because we're wearing nearly the same expressions on our faces). You can almost hear Keegan's adorable laughter as this picture was taken. Such a FANTASTIC way to wake up of a morning!! I think this will be a photo that gets printed and framed and sat on my night stand! A reminder to great EVERY day with this much love and joy. |
I snagged all 3 kids up and took a big ol' group shot of just the 4 of us before we got out of bed. I have to say, it's now my favorite picture!
The crazy camera guy Marshall started in his photo bombing stuff at 6am, and by 6:30 we took our group shot and got up for the day. No use laying around when they were all wide awake! Too mad today was a late start at school and I didn't have to have my daughter to school until after 9! Aw well. What's sleeping in when you are having fun with your kids? I think I might just make it a habit to leave my little pocket camera on the night stand, just so we can have some silly and fun mornings!
Although I've still had to play referee between my kids and keep them from trying to kill each other off and on today I must say they were pretty good today and we had a nice day. They played outside when they got home from school, and their Grandma A took us out to eat their favorite (Chinese), and when we went by the store later she bought them each a new pair of shoes (My daughter now has a pair of "play" sandals she can wear outside to play in at home, she had tore up her last pair at the end of last summer and all she had left was some cute strappy sandals that are for school later this spring). So now she's glad she has FLIP FLOPS. Because as she says "Mom, it isn't FAIR, YOU are wearing flip flops already but you won't let ME wear them yet!"
Ok yeh got me kid. She still isn't wearing sandals to school yet though, and certainly NOT flip flops.
It's getting warmer, but it's not THAT warm yet to wear those kinds of shoes to school.
So now, I'm off to get as much sleep as I can before one of my kids come sneaking into bed to snuggle with Mommy for the rest of the night. They are only little once. It doesn't last forever.
Mae
