'To Sleep, Perchance to ...' - Forget Dreaming, I'll Just Take Sleep

Sleep.  It is highly underrated.  Ask any parent of a newborn.  Any of you out there who don't yet have children but are planning to - you know who you are - please, take my advice.  Sleep now, while you can.  Enjoy every minute!  I'll live vicariously through you.  I remember fondly those weekend mornings I used to sleep in, have breakfast, and then go back to bed.  Ahhhh.  Those were the days.  My goal is to be able to do that again, some day.  (What a crazy dreamer I am.)

Last night was a 3-child-up night.  And not just once each, no!  That would be a breeze.  One of them was up at least three times, crying with nightmares.  The other was up several times coughing.  The other was up with growing pains.  He wanted me to massage his legs and I kept falling asleep in the middle, only to have him say, "Mommy!  They still hurt!" 

I want to be there for them, I really do.  It's just hard to function when you're lacking sleep.  I remember at one point I was so tired that I was having trouble forming words in my head to ask my son about the bad dreams.  Once I thought I had asked him a question, but I don't think anything actually came out of my mouth, so my son just stared at me uncomprehendingly.  (Come to think of it, he does that a lot.  I'm not sure why.  Hmmmmm.)

I mean, it's not as bad as when I was nursing a newborn.  That was the worst.  I felt like everything was a blur.  I remember being so tired and clumsy that I would walk into the sides of doorways, and not even realize it at the time.  Five minutes later I would be rubbing my shoulder, thinking tiredly, and with unreasonable suspicion, "What just happened?  What is going on here?  And who am I, again?"

You know it's bad when you have a dream that you're not able to sleep.  You're actually sleeping, and you can't even enjoy it because you're dreaming that you just want to sleep so badly and you can't.  Now that's a nightmare! 

The other night I had a dream that I was chasing the kids around.  I mean, isn't it enough that I do that during the day?  I have to do it in my sleep, too?  Why can't I dream that I'm lying on the beach in Cuba with a nice cold pina colada and a great book?  Why?

Of course my children are worth all the fatigue; worth everything.  And I also loved those days of sleeping beside my babies and nursing them. It was so nice to have them close and cuddle them.

Maybe for my birthday I'll ask to be able to go to a B&B.  People will say, "Oh, we understand.  You want to go there to get some quality time." 

"Quality time?  Ha!  Who needs that?  Quality SLEEP, you mean!  Now you're talking!"