A Good Night's Sleep

As a mom I constantly feel the need for a good night's sleep.  By now my kiddos should be sleeping through the night, but for some reason it does not happen every night.  Some nights it is because Ayden lost his paci in the bed or there are alligators in Audrey's room.  Regardless of the reason, I tend to the need and then I can't go back to sleep.  This is where I get very annoyed.  I know I have to get back to bed in order to function during the day that will be soon arriving, but I cannot shut off my mind.

Here are just a few examples of the shenanigans that occur in our late night wake ups.  I do not regret tending to my children's needs, I just wish I could go back to sleep...doesn't seem like a crazy request right?

One night recently Ayden woke up  and simply started yelling, "Momma come in here."  So that is what I did, went into his room to find out what I could help him with and he kept saying Bee, which later translated to pee after I completely woke up.  So I proceeded to change not only his diaper, but his pajamas as they were wet as well and I showed him back to his bed.  At this point it was 4:30 and my mind began to race.  Not thinking of anything in particular, but it just wandered about ridiculous things.  Of course I could hear Ayden rummaging around in his room too.  He was collecting up all his stuffed animals, and then was going to attempt his slumber but his tossing and turning showed he wasn't ready to go to sleep right away.  In fact he tossed and turned for an hour, and my mind solved the world's problems.  Immediately after Ayden fell asleep, it was like an internal clock went off on Audrey and she stumbled into the bedroom at 6.  Hence the fact why I am tired, a lot.

Another instance is one that occurs frequently in our house.  It is the event where Audrey wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our room.  She always tells me she is scared of something, however she is not scared enough to bring her blanket and stuffy to the room.  She normally camps out on the floor at this point, yet recently I just get out of bed, throw Audrey in my spot of the bed, and I walk over to the guest bedroom with my book because I know I will be up for awhile.  In the morning it is always interesting to see how Tyler feels about his new bed buddy because that girl is a windmill when she sleeps.

I have come to terms that if I wake up in the middle of the night I will more than likely stay up.  I get a lot of reading done, however I am always wondering if I should just get up and walk on the treadmill and catch up on the shows on the DVR.  Either way I am going to be continuously awoken for many more years, but maybe I can master the falling back to sleep strategy sooner than later.