Sleep Interrupted

This has not been a good week for me to get a full night's sleep without interruption.

Wednesday night my oldest went to a concert. I asked that he let me know when he was home. I went to bed around 11:30 p.m. and fell asleep almost immediately. He called at 12:30 a.m. to let me know the concert was over. I reminded him to let me know when he arrived home because he was still about an hour away from the house. When he arrived home at 1:30 a.m. he entered my bedroom by slamming the door open and saying very loudly in his deep voice "I'm home." Then he came and sat on my bed to tell me about the concert. He was radiating so much heat off his body that I immediately broke into a sweat. I told him I loved him, but he had to get out of my room before I had a heat stroke. It took an hour of the fan blowing on me before I could comfortable enough to get back to sleep. The next day I talked to both boys about the proper way to tell me they were home.

Friday morning I had to be up at 5:30 a.m. in stead of my usual 7:30 a.m. I tried to go to bed early on Thursday night, and even gave the oldest an 11:00 p.m. curfew so I would not be worried about him on the road until the wee hours. However, when the oldest came home, on time, he was upset and needed to talk so bedtime for me was after midnight and by then I too was upset and sleep did not come quickly. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and got the youngest off and to school by 6:30 a.m. for his concert trip, then I came back home and went back to bed. Since I don't have to be at work until 9:00 a.m. and I live so close to work, I decided I could sleep until 8:15 and still be on time. I should have just gone to work at 6:30 because the "nap" was full of nightmares and I felt sluggish and icky all day.

All of us were tired Friday night so we all went to bed around 11:30 p.m. deciding we would sleep very late on Saturday. I did not need to be any where until 1:00 p.m. so I set my alarm for 10:00 a.m. and fell into a deep sleep. The phone rang at 7:45 telling me my 1:00 p.m. was now 9:45 a.m. I went back to sleep until 8:15 a.m. but it was not the same.

Saturday night the youngest and I went to bed around 11:30 p.m. knowing we could sleep late Sunday. The oldest was out but we had set up rules earlier in the day as to how to let me know gently he was home. First he called me at 10:00 p.m. the time he thought his meeting would be over, but he informed me in the call that they had decided to end at midnight. He told me he loved me and goodnight then and he remembered the rules. When he came home around 1:00 a.m. he gently knocked on my door, opened it and said softly "I'm home." I acknowledged that I heard him and off he went. I fell right back into my sleep. It was wonderful.

At 3:30 I heard this deep voice over me saying "Mom, I'm sick." I was in such a sound sleep, I thought it was in my dream. It took several tries for the youngest (whose voice is deeper than his brother's) to wake me up to tell me that he had been up sick for a while, and he needed to know what medicine should he take.

I shook my head a few times and got up with the youngest, only to see that he had taken care of the preliminary things we usually do when one of them is sick. Together we set up the bucket by the couch, readied the couch for him to sleep on, and then I took the chair. I catnapped in the chair until the worse seemed over for him around 7:30 a.m., and then I went back to bed, hoping to sleep until about noon. Alas, noon turned into 10:00 a.m. when the church called for some information.

So now I am up, sluggish and looking forward to late this afternoon when I plan on taking a long nap.