Sleep Interrupted

Milk? Milk Please?

That was Nicholas requesting a cup of milk, so I got up and trudged downstairs, opened the refrigerator poured his milk and took it back upstairs. On my way back up my eyes wandered over the clock on the microwave.

3:05.

AM.

At that moment, one of my favorite expressions flashed across my mind.

You have got to be kidding me!

That was the thought but really this is the norm. Welcome to parenthood.

It is not unusual for me to have this late night interruption. After all Nicholas does love to stroll over at some point during the night to our bed. Or maybe the interruption is Jodi crying in her sleep. Sometimes I hear a phantom cry. Other times I wake up expecting to hear a cry which doesn't happen. But it doenst matter. I am up anyway. One thing is for sure: my sleep from this point on has been interrupted.

Permanently.

If you have told me twelve years ago that I would be yearning for uninterrupted sleep, I would have laughed. After all, I pioneered the concept of “sleep days”. Here is how Sleep Days work: it was one day a week where I would go to sleep the moment I got home. This was back from my college days when I worked and went to school at nights. So one day each week I would not work late, no homework or studying. Just sleep.

But those days are over. The brutal truth is that once you are a parent a good night’s sleep is one of those little things that you are eternally grateful for when it happens. Because the moment you take that little bundle of joy home, your sleep just got interrupted. On a permanent basis.

At this rate I may end up being the one crying!