Sleeping...

Sleeping is something I used to enjoy so much.  I could go to bed early and wake up late.  Sleep all day.  It was not unusual for me to say at 8:00 pm "I'm tired and going to sleep."  That is until the day Gigi entered my life. 

Gigi?  Is not a sleeper.  She does not enjoy the act of snuggling under the blankets and just BEING.  When she wakes up in the morning she is awake.  For good.  No snooze button.  No leisurely cartoons snuggled up with Mama.  She's UP!

Going to sleep for her is a chore.  She doesn't like it and doesn't want to do it.  Mention a nap and it's a meltdown.  Now that school has started we are getting into a rountine of her being asleep by 8:30 and this is EARLY by her standards.  She is a night owl and can easily stay up late and usually will then sleep in the next morning until 9:00 or 10:00 (yes, I know I'm lucky she sleeps this late.  I just wish it wasn't a FIGHT to get her there - seriously, when she was a baby and toddler I would have bruises from her literally fighting me not to go to sleep).

This morning at 4:00 am she decided she was awake.  4:00 AM.  There isn't even any kids shows on regular cable at 4:00 am.  She hasn't seen 4:00 am since she was a baby and that was a wake up and eat time and then go back to sleep until 9:00.  4:00 am.  *yawn*

So since I don't want to introduce the fact to her that in fact Nick Jr and Sprout are on ALL.NIGHT.LONG. we watched an infomercial instead.  In my mind it would be so boring she would go back to sleep.

Nope.  Now she thinks that a Shark Steam Pocket cleaner thing would be "fun."  Well truth be told I think it would be fun too but not $100 of money I don't have fun.  So...the infomercial didn't work.  She was just awake.  At 4:00 am did I mention that?  Funny thing is that my Daddy LOVED gadgets and would probably like the Steam Pocket thingy.  The man was the first person I knew to own a Salad Shooter.  I saw an ad for U-Glu the other day and actually ordered some because it makes me think of him.  FYI?  U-Glu does NOT live up to my expectations. 

Anyway, finally at about 5:00 I put her back in bed and turned the TV on.  Being the fabulous mother I am The George Lopez show was on Nick at Nite so she watched that until Dora came on.  I fell back asleep for a bit but she has been awake since 4:00 am. 

After school a boy ran into her and knocked her down.  She had a teeny tiny scrape but cried for 25 minutes and "never wants to go back to that school again because kids are mean!"  Drama queen much?  She also has a new friend on the playgroud she calls Anty because he likes to put ants down her shirt.  I explained that sometimes boys just like to do silly things like that because they want to be her friend.  How can I tell her not to call him Anty when I think it's absolutely hilarious that she calls him that?

Again...Mother of The YEAR award winner here. 

She is with Daddy right now and I pick her up in about 20 minutes.  Let's hope it won't take her a super long time to unwind from his house and go to sleep.  And she better sleep past 4:00 tomorrow morning or I'm totally ditching her on the couch with Sprout and going back to sleep. 

And my love of sleep?  It's still there but sleep does NOT come easy these days.  At night I lay down in the dark and memories come flooding back of things I don't want to remember.  Like the sound of my dad's breath that last week.  Or the way his face look right after he died.  How still the room was that early morning.  How when I put my head on his chest his heart wasn't beating away.  It's hard for me to get these things out of my head so I lay there until I fall asleep from pure exhaustion.  Let's hope tonight will be a little earlier bedtime for me and little later wake up time for Gigi.