I’m getting sleepy, VERY sleepy

I was once told by the president of a fraternity that if I were to ever pledge (forget the whole I’m a girl so I can’t thing), that they would use my need for sleep to try and break me. OK, those might not have been his exact words, but the meaning is there.

I have always enjoyed my sleep, and I get extremely cranky without enough of it, just ask Bill and the kids. For most of my life I’ve never had any troubles with my sleep.

And then I got pregnant with Cameron, and that’s when my insomnia started. I remember nights on end being spent walking around our townhouse, looking out windows, and sitting in dark rooms tired but unable to sleep. Of course once Cameron was born, I probably would have had no trouble sleeping if not for all those middle of the night feedings. But once he was sleeping through the night I still wasn’t.

Then I got pregnant with Logan and the whole insomnia thing continued.

I consider myself a very lucky mother, Cameron was sleeping through the night from about two months old and Logan did even better by sleeping through the night at six weeks. Not only were they seeping through the night early, but once they got a little older they started sleeping late. There were mornings they’d still be sleeping at 8 or 9am. Every mother’s dream I know. I thought maybe my sons were taking after their Mommy with their love of sleep.

Keep in mind I still don’t sleep well, most of my nights are spent tossing, turning, and wandering the house. A couple Tylenol PM help, but not enough that I ever feel truly rested. Most of my mornings I’m slow moving and feel groggy if I have to be out of bed before 8am. That didn’t used to be a problem around here, I would sleep until the boys got up then we’d all go down for breakfast together.

My boys, seemingly knowing how much mommy needs her sleep, have been waking up earlier and earlier for the past few weeks. They’re now up between 6:15 and 6:30 each and every morning. One will wake up and start making noise until the other wakes up, and they don’t even share a room. Both of my children have had room darkening curtains on their windows since they were infants, and their rooms are still very dark in the morning.

Why are they getting up so early?

This morning I was fast sleep, but even in sleep I could feel eyes on me. I open my eyes to see Cameron standing not 12 inches from my face. I nearly had a heart attack! I scream, he runs away and slams his door, now Logan is up too. Why do some children insist on standing beside your bed staring at you like some kind of axe murderer until you wake up? It’s pretty creepy.

I’m not sure what to do to get these kids sleeping a little later. At this point I’d settle for 7:30. Hell, at this point I’d settle for 7:00. No matter what time they go to bed, they wake up at the same time the next morning, so I can’t even start keeping them up later at night. I love how Mommyland keeps throwing me these curveballs!