Things I Miss #8: Sleep

Last night was a pretty good reminder of why I miss #8.  Sleep.  I'm not really a person that requires tons of sleep, which is good.  My children are probably the world's worst sleepers, or at least in the top ten.  They are not good, and admittedly, it's probably mostly my own fault because I am not good at sleep parenting.  If I could go back to my graduate-school self, I would tell her that a good dissertation topic would be "How to Promote Healthy Sleep Habits" because that would be a useful chunk of knowledge whereas language development in Latino families, the topic I actually selected, has not really proved to be very helpful in my day-to-day life.

So, my kids.  They don't sleep which in turn means I don't sleep.  I remember so clearly the moment when Cole was about six-months-old and I thought to myself, "I may never sleep through the night again because by the time Cole sleeps through the night, I'll be pregnant and I won't be able to sleep and then I'll have another newborn and when that baby sleeps through the night, I'll be pregnant again and that cycle will keep repeating itself until I have teenagers and parents of teenagers never sleep cause they are so worried about them and then when I don't have teenagers anymore, I'll be old and old people can't sleep very good either."  It was not a good moment.

Luckily, it wasn't an entirely true statement because there were probably two months or so in between when Annie slept through the night and when I was pregnant with Ben.  That was a wonderful two months.

It's not really the lack of sleep I miss the most so much as it is the lack of control over my own sleep schedule.  I can't just decide I want to stay up until 3:00 and then sleep in the next morning because I know what will happen when morning rolls around (not that I've had any reason or desire to stay up until 3:00 for over a decade, but still...).  All things considered, I think I've adjusted to the new reality pretty good.  I always let Floyd be the one to sleep in on the weekends and I'm really not a zombie most days.  But every once in a while, a night like last night sneaks up on me and I think, "gosh, it would really be nice to just go to bed when I'm tired and wake up when I'm not tired anymore." 

If it ever happens, I'll be sure and write it down and enjoy every second of it.