Sleep glorious sleep

Last night Ben went wakeboarding with friends after work, so I was on dinner/bath/bed duty with the kids alone.  No biggie.  The night went smoothly.  We had maccaroni and cheese and pancakes for dinner - a luxury we only get when its just mommy (because I have to watch the kids and cook.  I know some mommies do both, but not me.  I always have help with either the kids or the meal.)  Then we headed off to the bath to wash the syrup and cheese off of faces and hands.

 

Bryn easily went to bed after the bath and G and I headed to her room.  She has a pretty specific bedtime ritual.  It starts out with a cold drink and a story from a book.  Then, its lights out for a story from momma's head.  The improv story is always tricky - G gives me a scenario and I have to tell her all about it.  Last night she wanted a story about a girl and a baby who were camping and they got scared when they heard an animal in the woods.  So I told her a story about a family that went camping.  They left their teenage daughter back at the tent to care for the baby while they went on a hike.  She heard noises in the woods that scared her, because she worried it may be an animal.  But it turned out the noises she heard were really just mommy coming back to check on them.  (I have to try and minimize the scariness).  Luckily this lame story satisfied her, and it was time to move onto the "goosebump" stage of the bedtime ritual.

 

G loves her back scratched.  The light tickles give her goosebumps, and she's not satisfied until she has them.  But once she does, its time for closed eyes and no talking.  This is the part of bedtime that I like the best, as she's usually asleep quickly.  And because she's still afraid of the monsters in her closet, I usually stay until she's asleep.

 

Only last night, I also fell asleep.  It was only about 8 pm, and I was out cold.  Completely asleep.  And since Ben was gone, there was no one to wake me.  I slept through my run, and I didn't get the yard watering and laundry done that I'd planned on.  I was even still in my work clothes.  I woke up around 3 am, and just went to my own bed.

 

Other than that, no one woke up.  Not one child cried in the night for a drink.  No dogs barking woke me.  I even slept through Ben's snoring and weird sleep noises.

 

I got 9 full hours of sleep.  I can't remember the last time I slept that much - probably back to when G was a baby.  Its been years.  And it felt great.  I'm actually awake at my desk this morning.

 

I love my kids, but I have definitely sacrificed sleep to be their mommy.  Last night was such a blissful reminder of what an actual full night of sleep feels like.  And it was great.