Sleeping in my house...

Sleeping in my house has become something of a timed sport.

Bear, as you might recall, is 6. I have found that so far all my children go through a spurt between 5 and 6 where they have a LOT of dreams; good, bad and nightmarish. These dreams cause them to wake their mother, a lot.

Beanie used to have these dreams and in the spirit of not waking the whole household, would walk into my room and stand about an inch and a half from my face and just WAIT. It wouldn't take long for my Spidey sense to kick in and the feeling that something was in my space would cause me to open my eyes to a GINORMOUS head in my line of sight. This would, of course, cause me to rear back and utter whatever guttural sound comes from a person who has just awakened to a terrible sight...which would then ensure the wakefulness of Bubba and usually Bear, who was still nursing at the time. Yes, indeed, the whole household awake in a thrilling fashion.

Bear has her own style. She's been having these dreams for a goodly amount of time at this point. She's past the screaming in her bed until I come. She is mostly past the whimpering until Beanie invites her into her bed. Now, Bear stomps into my room and sneaks into our bed wherever she fits. Last week it was on Bubba's side. Last night, there was room on mine.

She doesn't wake us, she usually just fits whatever space is there without touching us, however, last night she did not know what to do with my extra fluffy pillow, so she put it on her head. She must have been there some time when I put my hand out (on the bed, I'd thought) to turn over and leaned (hard) on her person. Imagine the rearing back of that instance, when the pillow, which was all I could see, made a guttural sound of it's own. So here we are, startled, Bear trying to catch the breath I pushed out of her. All of us awake and aware of each other in the bed and then trying to go back to sleep.

Bear, being awake, could not resist touching me, just barely, with her toes. She didn't do it constantly, just consistently as I was falling asleep. Finally, being wedged between two of the warmest people in the house, on the warmest night we've had so far, I suggested that MAYBE Bear could go back to her bed because I was too hot. In typical, logical Bear fashion, she said, "Oh no, momma, we can just uncover you...that'll be fine."

hmmmmm...

THAT'LL BE FINE???

Well, as you may have guessed, I kicked her out. Now, I did walk her back to her room and tucked her, as needed, into her bed...and then proceeded back to my much LARGER space to fling my covers around as I thought best.

A short time later, we heard Beanie crying. So, I found my glasses and FLEW in there thinking she'd gotten stuck on one side or the other as happens when you have a hard time moving your own legs. Nope, another bad dream. This one that *I*, her mother, told her to run away and never come back. Hmmmmm...I hugged her and kissed her cheeks and told her she had a silly head...and suggested that maybe she and I could run away and find someplace with two beds and nobody to wake us until morning.

Course, at this point it was a little after 5 am and if I wake up anytime after about 4 am my body thinks it's time to party...so that is why, at 6:34 am, I am here, writing to you, dear reader...and have been up for over an hour.

Now, lest you think this is an isolated event...let me clarify. While Bean and I were at the hospital, Bubba only slept one night alone. One or the other or both children woke with bad dreams every other night. That memorable Friday night that set off this difficult time for us?? Bear was the one who FLEW to my bedside because she'd been in bed with Beanie when it all started, due to an earlier bad dream. Bear has been waking up for about 6 months pretty regularly...but it's been MUCH worse since that Friday.

But this curse of wakefulness seems to be farther reaching than I thought. You see, my parents arrived Sunday. Apparently, for the last few times that they've come, my mother doesn't sleep well the first night she is here. Now, she doesn't have bad dreams...no, her problem is that the bed is SO comfortable. Something will wake her in the night and instead of falling back to sleep she lays there pondering the wonder of my comfortable guest bed.

So I guess the bottom line is this. Feel free to come visit me. Allow me to feed you, play games with you, watch T.V. with you, entertain you mightily. But consider carefully a suggestion to "sleep" over, because due to forces beyond my control, that is not possible here.

See you around...