If I was Invisible.......Sleep ah to Sleep

Just a word or two about sleep, how come it takes me so long to fall asleep? I go to bed between 10..ummm, okay...11:00 pm and 1:00 am. I am usually reading a book on food, homeschool, or church and family or I am perusing Vegetarian, vegan or 'whole food' food blogs before I try to drift off into lala land. Skip is right beside me on his computer. He is usually catching up on work. We finish about the same time. I wash my face, moisturize like a mad woman, brush my teeth and get into bed. Skip does the same.{ I think he skips the moisturizing though}. We go to bed. Within five minutes or less Skip is snoring away........ Irritating...... I on the other hand I am wide awake for at least 45 min to an hour......sometimes longer. I have some paper beside my bed to write down ideas. This helps a little. The whole thing is extremely frustrating.

Now to my children. Claire is like Skip. We read, say prayers, talk a bit, cuddle and then she lays down and is asleep within five minutes easy. It is like clock work. It is awesome! The boys, not so awesome. They all seem to have my same problem. We read, say prayers, talk a little, cuddle or give hugs depending on their age and then we wait.....and wait. It can take up to two hours......Irritating......no matter how much I say go to sleep they are wide awake. They are frustrated too. Sometimes there are many tears shed for want of going to sleep.

The newest phenomena to hit my night time slumber, is the fact that once I do get to sleep, I sleep really heavy. This is somewhat disturbing to me. I mean, I guess it is good in a way, but I have, for the past thirteen years heard every little thing, noise, snore, grunt; that went on in this house during the bewitching hours. There are several reasons I know I am sleeping heavier.

First, a couple nights ago Blake got sick around 4:00am. his m.o. for this is crying first and then the sickness starts. I did not hear crying. I did not hear sickness. What I did hear and what made me jump like three feet out of my bed, was Jack at the foot of my bed yelling through a mega phone {he says he didn't have one, I am not sure I can believe that} " Mom, Blake is sick!! Mom!!"

Second, about a week ago I am sleeping in bed around 3 or 4 in the morning, when I felt this presence. It takes me a minute to come out of my blissful dream state. In fact this presence becomes part of my dream. I slowly come to realize someone is staring at me. Their eyes are pretty much at the level that my bed sits. I slowly, almost dream like, open one eye and again I am startled into awakeness. My body jumps about three feet off the bed again. Blake is just standing there staring at me. I ask him how long he has been there and he just shrugs. I ask him what he needs. He shrugs, starts to leave and starts to cry. I have scared him. I feel terrible and grab him and hug him. It turns out he needs to use the restroom. I should have known.

Third, this was sometime in the past week or so. I sit up out of a deep slumber around 4:00 am, because I swear I heard someone running down the hall and I thought I felt a presence beside me while I was sleeping, but I couldn't wake myself up.......I listen...nothing...still listening and sitting straight up in bed....I finally decide to go check it out. I creep down the hall, look in all the rooms, and whisper Blake's name. I think it may be him because of our past history. He is asleep. They are all asleep. I go back to bed, somewhat dazed......flash forward to breakfast the next morning....Claire says with a smile on her face" Mom, I watched you sleep last night." " What?.. Why did you do that?" Okay, I am not crazy. The words come to my mind from some song," If I was Invisible, then I would just watch you in your room...." Claire smiles and says."I wanted to cuddle with you, so I waited for you to wake up and you didn't so I sneaked quietly out of your room, so I would not wake you up{ she smiles and cocks her head to one side, obviously proud that she thought of this.} and ran down the hall {loud enough to wake me} to my room..... I got my baby and cuddled with her." BIG SMILE ON CLAIRE"S FACE.

This is all well and good. I am glad they are not yelling my name from their beds in the middle of the night. I am glad Claire could solve her own problem in the middle of the early AM, I am glad once I do get to sleep I am actually sleeping, but what if there is a fire or someone is in the house or they need me because they have fallen behind their bed in and can't get out. I mean what if the freakin' boogie man comes and I cannot be wakened from my slumber....I mean what then?........And what is the deal with the magical time of 4 am anyway?