Do you remember nights when you slept like a soft, white unicorn on a fluffy cloud? When you dreamt of fairies and chocolate covered cookie dough balls and butterflies? When your head hit the pillow and you didn’t move until morning?
Yea.
I don’t.
Just when we were about to hi-five our parenting selves for having a good schedule with our boy, PB threw us for a big ole’ loop. And this loop is called the ‘I don’t want to sleep because I don’t have to sleep because you don’t need to sleep’ loop, and it’s been going on for over a week now. We have always been very lucky to have a sleeping boy. For the most part, he’s always had a pretty good sleep schedule. And then out of nowhere last week, it hit.
It’s 3:43 a.m. I’m dreaming of building big wooden things with my new table saw (yes, I actually dream about things like that). All of the sudden, I hear, “Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama?” I roll over and look at the clock. I think it’s still part of my dream. “Mama, dadda, tacta (tractor), papaw, nana, moos (cows), doose (goose-what he calls my brother), ball, hat, toot (shoot), dow bow (brown dog), mama, dadda, moooooooos!”
This proceeds for 5 minutes. He’s not crying. He’s not fussing. He’s simply reciting all of the words he has in his vocabulary. I drag my lifeless body out of bed and peek in his room, ever so quietly, as not to let him see me. Because, if he sees me, then it’s over, right?!
Shoot! He sees me. It’s over. I try patting his back. No dice. He’s trying to climb out of the crib. It’s 3:57 a.m. for Pete’s sake! So then I climb in his crib. Yes, I know. I’m waiting for the night it collapses with us. I lay with him and try to pat him back to sleep. He picks my nose. He laughs. I cry. I tell him to lay still and fall back asleep. He tries to dittle (tickle) my chin. I think this must really be a dream. However, it is not. I am reminded of that as he sticks his little fingers deep in my eye sockets.
This goes on until I hear our alarm clock go off. I lay in the crib, swearing I won’t go to work that day, until Ben comes and drags me out. This has gone on for over a week, people. Every morning, like clockwork, he wakes up ready to play. He’s been going to bed over an hour later every night, too. I don’t know what is going on. I’m blaming the time change. Is it winter yet?
Last night, at 3:23 a.m., as we laid in bed listening to PB recite the names of everyone he knows, half mad, half laughing, and fully delirious, we were reminded how much parenthood had changed our lives. Gone are those nights where we slept so peacefully. Whether we’re interrupted by a baby who likes to talk in his sleep, or we’re laying awake wondering when our teenage boy will get his butt home, life is no longer the same.
But it’s okay, because no matter what he does, he still looks cute. And nothing screams cute like riding your rocking horse in the bathroom 38 minutes past your bedtime:
Seriously, when ‘they’ say, ‘enjoy your sleep while you can’, for CRYING OUT LOUD, LISTEN PEOPLE! ‘They’ know what they are talking about!
So for those of you with kiddos, have your kids ever had problems adjusting to the time changes? Do they ever randomly have periods where they don’t want to sleep? Is this normal? Are we doomed? Can I please have some toothpicks to hold up my eyelids?
Have a blessed Monday 🙂
