I Need Sleep Peeps!

     I think the worst part of pregnancy is not being able to sleep during a time when sleep is very much needed.  Sorry, but I require a little more than 2.5-3 hours of sleep tonight to raise 3 busy boys, work, carry around an extra 30 pounds and have a tiny little critter suck the life out of me on a daily basis.  Pregnancy insomnia is one of Mother Nature's personal jokes (she has a lot including giving us November weather for April this year).  Of course there is no sympathy for this either with other moms responding with "it's just preparation for when that new baby comes".  No it's not!  This is baby #4 for me and I am pretty sure all 3 of my other boys slept more than 3 hours a night and there is something to be said for having a cute, little, pink baby to snuggle and stare at during those wakeful hours as opposed to the ceiling fan or the alarm clock.

   As if the headaches, heart burn, back pain, baby movements, leg cramps, and trips to the bathroom weren't enough to prevent sleep, I also sleep next to the Great Grizzly who either wakes me or prevents me from sleeping in the first place with the horrible sounds that come out of him while he proceeds to suck in the ceiling all night.  A lot of people snore when they sleep on their back -Papa Bear does that.  Some people snore when they sleep on their sides -Papa Bear also does that.  Few people snore when they sleep on their stomachs -how the heck does Papa Bear manage that as well?!  I guess last night he got sick of being elbowed and poked and yelled at to stop snoring because he eventually moved to the couch.  Best 2 hours of sleep I had all night!

     When it isn't aches and pains of my pregnant body or Papa Bear's snoring preventing sleep it is temperature.  I think our furnace has a mind of it's own and completely ignores the number it is set to.  I swear the hotter it is the more often I hear that bugger fire up as if opening the gates of hell.  This has resulted in me sleeping with the window above our bed open all winter to regulate some sort of tolerable temperature.  Poor snoring Papa Bear usually has enough fur covering to keep him warm at night without any blankets at all is now wrapped up in a blanket taco, he says to ward off the chill in our room...I have no idea what he is talking about.

   To top off the entire sleepless night it never fails that a certain child (ahem Wee One) feels the need to disrupt the last 1/2 hour of sleep before the alarm.  Apparently he hasn't received the memo that this is the most important 1/2 hour of the whole night and is not to be interrupted.  "Dad.  Dad.  Daddy?  Dad!" He knows better than to call Mama unless it is important -important being, sick, scared or hurt.  Not important being I can't find 1 of the 102 stuffed animals populating my bed at all times that I am actually laying on top of...  Mama doesn't seem to be quite as sympathetic to these problems at 6:15 in the morning as Dad might be.

   It is all of this that makes me dread bedtime (resulting in later night games of Words With Friends and finishing off the box of Popsicles) and look forward to the rare opportunities that present themselves for a nap. I bet you don't hear a lot of women say "I really can't wait until I have a newborn so I can get some more much needed sleep".  I need sleep peeps!