It's 3:17 am. I bet all you guys are snug in your cozy beds. Well, except for you in the UK who are probably cursing all of us who are supposed to be snug in our cozy beds. (P.S. Thanks for reading, UK-er!) Yet, here I am, criss-cross like a 7-year old on the couch, tea in hand (between sentences), sound of the dryer tossing my clothes and scraping the buttons of my jeans.
When I had a baby, I learned two things about sleep. A) It's precious. B) I can get by on a lot less than I thought. In the first months of Houston's life, I probably would have done crimes for extra hours of sleep. Perhaps the thought of a private jail cell was appealing. As I've mentioned before, I'm just a rotten girl when I get woken up. I'm a pretty great mom from 6am to 10pm. After that, all bets are off. But there's a difference between "unnatural" woken sleep and natural woken sleep. Now, a veteran at this sleep-deprivation, the clock says 3:17 and I think, welp, at least I got 6 uninterrupted hours. What I wouldn't have done for that amount of time 18 short months ago.
I woke up thinking about my classroom. About changes I wanted to make, grades I had to post, desks I wanted to move. Once the thoughts turn to school, I usually know I'm doomed. Work thoughts are tough. Unless you work at home, you can't just get up and fix the things you need to. You just have to dwell and stress for 6 more hours until you can actually do something, and then when you actually get to work, you're too tired to do anything more than survive... stress cycle continues.
When I can't sleep, I have to get up. I have to feel like I did at least one productive thing to lighten the load (ew, hate the expression) for tomorrow. Hence, laundry. Hence, blog. Usually, after awhile, the feeling that my brain has been infused with crack subsides. I don't really feel like folding that stuff in the dryer anymore. The amazing point I had to make in my blog has sorta faded. It's almost time to head back upstairs.
What do you do when you're too stressed to sleep? Or your mind's alarm clock went off prematurely?(My mind's in the gutter.) I'd love to know how to take better advantage of this time, or alternatively, go back to sleep. Truth is, after babies, sometimes it's nice to have some uninterrupted thinking time. A few minutes to mentally prepare for the days to come. Although I say that now, and if that monitor starts blaring in 15 minutes, I'll be back later swearing...
Sweet dreams!
2 comments:
Remember sophomore year of college when we used to lay in our beds chatting till 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and then sleep leisurely till 10:00 a.m. or so? my GOD. I am petrified of having babies in large part because I don't know how i'll get by on less than 7 hours.
Ugh! I hear you! When my mind starts churning, it takes over everything. I've definitely been in the middle of a shower and my mind has started to plan my day...15 minutes later, I'm still shampooing my hair. Not to mention the sad reality that I've gotten no where with those mental plans!! Brain-Mania!
I've also made the unforunate mistake of forcing myself back to sleep! I don't recommend it. I usually end up in weird, haunting stress dreams!
Getting up and doing something or writing, like you mentioned, work well for me too. Sometimes, (if I catch it early enough) I can start repeating a mantra in my head like "Relax, Slow Down." And, if I just focus on those words, blocking out everything else, I do relax and sleep, good sleep, will come back to me. But, only if I jump on it QUICK!
3am Laundry List Club, anyone?! :-P
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