Ins-Mom-Nia

Everyone has those nights, weeks, years when sleep was slow to come or never came at all. But I think, when you're a mom, that sleep begins to elude you for longer and longer periods of time. Now, I completely understand that drugs (and no, I do not mean the recreational kind) play a big role in both keeping people awake (like the poor steroid-inflicted Diner Girl) and helping people to sleep (ie. Lunesta, Ambien, Tylenol PM). But sometimes, in a generally normal existence, sleep is difficult and ESPECIALLY when you have small children.

I, for one, became an exceptionally light sleeper once the Peanut was born. I swear that I knew I could hear her breathing if I just paid attention. And so I would lie there in the dark, monitor on, listening with every fiber of my being. And I had it on loud enough that I knew whether she was breathing, what direction she was lying in, whether or not she was covered, on her back, playing with something. Every nuance of that "quiet" was interpreted in my brain. It wasn't until she got LOUD as a toddler that I turned off the monitor and basically knew that I could hear her at the drop of a hat if she needed me.

As the Peanut got older, she started to talk in her sleep a little and I awoke each time especially while our rooms were so close. Once in the new house I used a monitor for a while but she started to sleep better and then eventually came to GET me when she needed me.

But at this point, I was a goner. Once I'm up in the middle of the night for any reason, I'm UP and for a while. I used to come get online, read in the bathroom, go downstairs and watch TV, or try to go sleep in another room. I try everything because nothing is worse than WANTING to sleep and not being able to.

More than anything, it's my brain keeping me awake. When I worked I would lie in bed and think of work - something I didn't finish, a deadline I forgot about, a team member I was annoyed with. But with the kids, I think of everything all the time. I'm out of diapers or I need new sippy cups or I have to buy a birthday present for someone or I need to mention something to the teacher or blah blah blah. Worse than all of this are the songs I sing, in my head, over and over. Not whole songs but pieces of songs. Like the one sentence from one theme song that I know without knowing the rest of the words. Nothing is more annoying.

So I ask you...what do YOU do with your insomnia? What are your tricks of the trade? How do you ever get back to sleep?