Sleep

This is one of those precious moments in this household.
I know as a mother I can not be expected to get sleep but I can at least try.
Unfortunately there are several factors which always seem to stand in my way of sleeping, or at least disturbing my sleep. These factors do not always happen all at once and it may be a few days in between them occurring, but these are the factors I have to deal with on a regular basis that prevent me from having a great nights sleep, and let me tell you I love sleeping.

Factor 1
The children, yes I know, before we start I am well aware that by having children then I gave up all right to having a good nights sleep from the moment that little line turned blue!
It was as if your body turned on itself and said “let’s really show her what she is in for!” and I have not had great sleep since!
The boys do not tend to wake in the night much anymore, however when they did it was always, why I don’t know, me that they wanted. Not daddy…it had to be mummy! 85% of the time it was me they came to, always!
Eventually it got to the point where 50% of the time they came to me, it was as if Ben had a shift in who he wanted and suddenly he started always going to Steve at night, but Alex still came to me. Now I had no problem with this apart from the fact that what Ben would want at night compared to Alex, well lets just say I still lost out. Ben would wake for waking's sake and would come and find Steve because he couldn’t sleep or because he was cold. Simple to deal with, let him crawl in next to you and all go back to sleep. Simple, good night all.
Alex on the other hand would come and find me, stand next to the bed naked and proclaim “mummy, I’ve wet my bed!” Tell me…how is that fair?
If it was a simple I am cold or can’t sleep, then he would climb in with me and proceed to take over the entire bed! Thus still no sleep for mummy.

Factor 2
The 4 legged animals in the house.
Yes the cats can rank as high as the children when it comes to my sleep. We have 2 cats, one is great at night the other needs to be shot!
1 seems to have learnt that if you curl up quietly and sleep all night then you get to stay in and keep warm, the other has not learnt this lesson and still insists on playing at 3am.
The playful one will happily sleep the evening away on our bed or even on our lap whilst we watch tv. She will snuggle with me when I go to bed and then Steve will throw her out when he goes to bed otherwise she jumps at the door all evening because she can see a light on inside and this has to = someone still being awake!
However on the odd occasion that he has felt sorry for the cat because it is so cold outside he has left her snuggled next to me.
Great until she starts playing at 3am and then guess what….she jumps all over me, disturbs me, bugs me, until there is nothing left to do but pick her up and chuck her outside.
She never goes near Steve at night, so all his good intentions go out the window as I am the one that has to deal with her in the middle of the night.
The amount of times I have cursed him in the middle of the night and again the next morning when I am so tired because of him leaving the cat in all night!

Factor 3
An odd one but the weather, guarantee that if it is raining outside then I will wake in the night and listen to it. If the wind gets up then I will wake to that too, it blows the curtain and thus I wake up and if there is a thunder storm well I may as well get up and do housework…I will be awake until such time as it finishes.
I never use to be this sensitive to noise but since having the children (their fault again) I am more of a light sleeper, as I am listening out for them a little more.

Factor 4
My husband!
Enough said really………. he snores, usually at 2.41am, yea funny how it is always at about the same time of night.
He grunts and groans to himself as well. And as for the restless legs he gets, sometimes the bed bounces around as his legs jump and then he gets restless and turns over every 10 mins.
Makes for such a fun sleep……for me!