Sleepyheads

My sleepyheads...

Had to sneak the one of Garrison. Couldn't dare risk waking him up from his nap!

Sleep is a must have. For everyone. (But especially babies and preschoolers, and especially mama's and daddy's. But especially mama's and preschoolers.) And for some reason, here at the Selph household, we all have different sleeping habits and "needs". And mama and the preschooler need it the most.

Example #1: my husband has always been a night owl. Like ever since he can remember. He actually has memories of lying awake as a child and not being able to go to sleep, for whatever reason, at bedtime. To this day, he still stays up late almost every single night and can function on way less sleep than I can. To this day he refuses to come to bed if he's not sleepy, no matter what the clock says. And to this day, he blames it on having to lay in his bed wide awake as a child feeling totally bored and frustrated because he couldn't fall asleep. To this day, (okay last time I'm gonna use that phrase), it's pretty rare for him to come to bed before midnight. Sometimes he'll turn in early around 11:30 or so, other times it's more like 1:00 or 1:30... am. And every once in a while he'll come to bed really, really early around 11:00. Since he works at a bank 5 minutes from home, he doesn't have to wake up super early, but still... it's crazy to me that he's 30 and still keeping hours like a college student. One day I'll accept it I guess.

The great thing about these hours he keeps is that it doesn't effect him so much. He still wakes up in a pretty good mood. He's still productive at work and helpful at home. He doesn't complain or become irritable or moody. He just doesn't need as much sleep as the rest of us I guess. (The bad thing about the hours he keeps... it takes him what seems like forever to get up every morning. Makes me crazy impatient with him. And, my pet peeve, he always seems to doze off while we're in B'ville for the weekend visiting family. It's like his body relaxes and gets sleepy automatically just because there are grandparents around to help with the boys. Ahhhh.)

Example #2: I need sleep. More than my husband does. In college when I went to bed really late (mainly because I talking on the phone to Terrell and attempting to keep his hours), I would always take a nap the next afternoon. If I know I have to wake up early, I like to go to bed early. If I know I can sleep late (which is extremely rare) I might stay up a little later. If I stay up real late and then wake up real early, it effects me the next day. I feel like I'm moving in slow motion. I feel shaky. I'm impatient with Garrison. It's just not good. I'm amazed at how well I handled Austin's newborn stage when I was waking up multiple times during the night and taking care of both of them during the day. I guess the "you do what you have to do" mentality steps in and God provides you with what you need. That's my only explanation for it. Although there have been times in the past, even before kids, that I've wondered if some of it is in my head.... like waking up knowing I didn't get enough sleep so I probably wasn't going to have a good day, so then I didn't have a good day... because I wasn't expecting to. Hmmm.

I have a bedtime routine every night of winding down and getting sleepy that's quite wonderful. It starts with the normal stuff... pj's, washing my face, brushing my teeth, then I always read in bed. Every night. It's my time to wind down and get relaxed and escape from stress or busyness or the real world. And it works every single night. I enjoy a chapter or 2 from my book and then I'm snoozing...

Which brings me to example #3: Garrison Cade. I'm thinking he's more like me in the whole sleep department. He needs his sleep. And, he now likes reading books before falling asleep. If he doesn't sleep good at night, we all know about it the next day. If he misses his nap and stays up a little too late, well, you're just asking for a meltdown. A big one. If something or someone wakes him up an hour before he's used to getting up (like this morning), nothing you can do will be right or okay or not devestating before breakfast is served. Lack of sleep is rough on my big boy. We have to be really careful about letting him miss naps and make sure he's able to go the bed early that night if he does miss a nap. We have to be consistent about the bedtime routine so that he hopefully falls asleep at a decent hour. And we have to be especially vigilant about him playing really hard on little sleep... as that can lead to crying so hard he throws up (something we discovered at Christmas and were reminded of again on the night of the French Fry).

When he has his sleep on the other hand, little man is just about as pleasant and laid back and fun to be around as a 3 year old can be. He's helpful around the house, he's sweet and loving to Austin, he does what I ask, etc. Sleep and lots of it, is his friend... and mine.

And now for example #4: Sweet baby Austin. The jury's still out on my littlest man. He doesn't nap quite as long as Garrison did as a baby, which leads me to believe he might be a tad more like his daddy because it never seems to effect him. Although he is an early riser, total opposite from daddy. He doesn't have huge meltdowns over lack of sleep... but he's not a toddler or preschooler yet either. He's never truly had a "witching hour" (if you don't count the stretch we had of him crying his eyes out at bedtime). He has definitely been a better night time sleeper than Garrison, but I'm not sure what that means. Hmmm, guess we'll just wait and see. As for now, I'm just thankful he takes two naps a day, one of them being at the same time as big brother, and he sleeps through the night. I couldn't ask for much more.

I'm ready for a nap now...

Maybe one day.