Eureka!

It hit me this morning what’s wrong. For the past few weeks, maybe even few months, I felt tired. Some days worse then others. Some days others comment on how tired I look.

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I was going to bed at reasonable hours. I wasn’t waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning anymore. Yes, the kids are all bad sleepers, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with my tired look. And then, BAM it hit me. Because of their bad sleeping habits, they talk in their sleep.

“Get your foot off of me!” one cries out in the middle of the night.

‘I don’t want any covers!” the baby cries out.

“I’m on the edge of the bed!”

“Take your arm off of me!”

“Stop taking all the cover!”

This goes on during the night and with my eyes closed or barely open, I fix the problem. I move the kids around, I found blankets or sometimes robes to place over cold kids. And last night, I got the whisper in my ear.

“Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom.”

That was from Rowan at like 1AM. Why was she telling me this? She wasn’t at school. Part of the plot to kill me.

Then it wasn’t over once I told her to go to the bathroom, it continued when she came back to tell me her panties were wet. Really?! Really?!?!? Really little girl you want to have a conversation this time of the morning?! She tried to explain to me that she didn’t pee pee on herself. I didn’t care. I just wanted to go back to sleep.

“It’s okay, Rowan. Go back to sleep,” I assured her.

She got back in the bed and a few minutes later, I decided to cuddle with her only to discover she was wet.

“Rowan, you’re wet. Change clothes.”

I thought she did a little twinkle because she wasn’t fast enough getting her clothes down, that felt like more wetness then that. So she got out of bed, changed clothes and got back into bed. I cuddled with her again only to discover she put her underwear on wrong. But I let it go. It would be fine in the morning.

Yep, it’s my nighttime job of making sure everyone has enough blankets on them, don’t have people touching them, and having conversations at night, besides discovering people didn’t put on their pull ups, that has me looking so tired. I have to repeat what I know. This is my ministry. This is my season. It will pass all too quickly and I’ll miss it. But I would really love one full night of REM sleep because if I can hear all of that going on, I’m not sleeping that deeply.