Ah Sleep

11:00pm and all is quiet. Yes, that is right; all my babies are sound asleep and have been for the last hour and a half. Now, this may seem quite natural to you, but in the Holt home, this is no small feat.

You see, I happen to reside in a home full of nocturnal children. My kids just DO NOT SLEEP!! Even after I send them to bed at 8:30, they will lay there reading, talking, and laughing. The decibel level in this house rarely diminishes before 11:00. This of course does not apply to Braeden or Micaiah. Braeden usually tapers down around 12:00. Moreover, Micaiah will not even THINK about sleeping until I am tucked comfortably under my covers. She will sit quietly at my feet, playing with Barbies or coloring until my light goes out.

I can’t recall if I was a night owl when I was very young, but I can remember staying up into the wee hours as a teenager. Then when Al and I lived in Colorado, I would stay up all night until he got home from work. In Colorado I didn’t mind that Ashton and Kayl stayed up all night with me because it meant they would sleep late into the morning, thus I could sleep late into the morning. As the kids got older I do believe their love for the night just caught on, and it seems to have been passed down to the younger children.

Now that the kids are in school the fact that they stay up so late drives me LOONEY!! They are not difficult to wake in the morning. In fact, the four older ones all wake and ready themselves, often without my ever knowing. I have even woke at 9:00am to find the house still and peaceful, then realized the time and jumped out of bed frantic at the thought that the kids were late for school. Nope, all was well. They made it just fine without me.

Nighttime is when I get my work done. I do laundry, read, e-mail, write, and I clean. This is my time….only it seems to be their time as well. Part of me envies morning people. I have always wondered if I would be capable of having a regular job. For heaven sake, I can’t even seem to be showered, dressed, done up & kids ready before 11:00 in the morning! The few morning appointments that I have been forced into have almost brought me to tears. If I am up early, the rest of my day is shot. I am tired & lethargic all day long. No people, I am not lazy. Where most folks sleep at 10:00, wake at 5:00 or 6:00, I sleep at 3:00 or 4:00 wake at 9:00. Basically, I am getting the same amount of sleep, just on a different schedule.

It is almost sad when Alex is home. Our sleep schedules fight each other. He has to be up at 4:00 in the morning and I don’t want to sleep until then. He’ll try to stay up with me, but to no avail. After a few days of that, and he is dragging. I do tend to fall asleep a bit earlier when he is home. Maybe by 1:00 or 2:00. Unfortunately, the habit seems to break the second he walks out the door again.

Maybe someday I will adjust my schedule, but right now, it works for me. It is times like these, when the house is quiet and all is still that I can relax. I think I will get off here and go clean my house, I have plenty of time before bed.