In the middle of the night I “heard” Livia’s voice calling for me, so I jumped out of bed, ran into her room and began asking her questions and patting her face before I realized she was sound asleep. Dead asleep, even with her mama’s hands groping her noggin in the pitch black at 3:00am. Niiiice.
The weird thing is that sometimes I think I’m hearing her when she’s not even in the house! She’ll be asleep in my parents’ extra room and I’ll sit up straight in bed after hearing her call for Mommy.
The most unfortunate consequence of getting up for a real call or imaginary one is that I can’t fall back asleep easily. I usually spend 20-30 minutes trying to relax again, my mind spinning with unsleepy thoughts. Curse you, adulthood, with your multitude of responsibilities!
My last thought regarding sleep and children and responsible parental behaviors is this: Friday mornings are only accomplished successfully because Saturday is just one day away. Friday comes around and it’s almost physically painful to rouse myself and Livia from bed. Get dressed. Get shoes on. Eat breakfast. Brush teeth. Brush hair. Get out the door and get into school on time.
But oh, sweet sweet Saturday. How I adore thee. I didn’t fully appreciate your beauty until school started—I was blind to your precious ways. But now? I can see clearly your benefits. Pajamas until 3:00pm. Lucky Charms for breakfast. Lounging on the couch until lunchtime.
TGIF.
9 Comments
Alli Mar 4, 2011 8:34 AM
I “hear” my kids at night too! Sometimes I lay in bed holding my breath to make sure I can figure out if what I heard was real or not. Sometimes it’s the dog wheezing, sometimes it’s the kids.
happygirl Mar 4, 2011 8:35 AM
Sometimes I dream I was smoking. I quit 20 years ago. Isn’t the mind a crazy thing. Dreams, nightmares, sleepwalking, sleeptalking. Our subconscious is an amazing thing. You’ve gotta watch Inception. I digress, I love Saturdays too. Thanks for writing.
Rebecca Mar 4, 2011 8:36 AM
Okay, now I’m going to laugh all day about the dog wheezing, Alli. That’s just plain funny.
floreksa Mar 4, 2011 9:32 AM
I “hear” Ally ALL the time too and do the breath holding to figure out if it was really her or not. Some days I actually miss having the baby monitor. Of course then I remember the phantom voices it would pick up that would scare the crap out of me at night.. LOL
Jen Mar 4, 2011 9:35 AM
I’m a morning person, so Friday mornings are fine. Friday afternoons drag on f o r e v e r. That just happens to be the time I clean the house, too. Connection? Likely. :)
Bethany Mar 4, 2011 9:47 AM
I’m with you, on both the phantom noises and the taking forever to fall asleep. Ah, motherhood.
Erin Mar 4, 2011 3:58 PM
I hear ya on the not being able to go back to sleep. It usually takes me about an hour and a half to fall back asleep…especially when I was jolted awake. Like last night we had really strong wind gusts which slammed our bedroom door shut at about 1am…didn’t go back to sleep until about 2:30am. Gotta love hole-y Hawaii homes that aren’t sealed well. Any type of wind gust sends all doors slamming.
Papa Mar 4, 2011 8:14 PM
Bec,
Were you talking about sleeping in on Saturday of Sunday :).
Rebecca Mar 5, 2011 1:11 PM
Both, Dad! I love that evening church time slot. :D