Day 12

Day 12: I'm thankful for sleep.  It may seem like a silly thing to be thankful for (especially to those who don't have children yet), but sleep is one of the best gifts I can be given right now.  For most parents with multiple young children, the days of sleeping in late and getting 8+ hours of sleep a night are long gone.  I am no exception.  Although, I must admit that my kids have all been pretty good sleepers, but Caleb has been the hardest and I can only imagine what people who go years and years with bad or little sleep feel like. 

Some of my lack of sleep is my own fault.  I am, by nature, a night-owl which means that my bedtime is rarely before midnight.  I get a burst of energy around 9 pm and it keeps me up late finishing up stuff around the house, reading a book, watching TV or just hanging out with people.  The problem is that 7 am comes very quickly and brings with it 4 little boys who are full of energy after a long night's sleep.  Watch out on the days that Caleb decides to get up before then as I am not a happy camper.

So, extra hours of sleep are like a currency in our house.  Jon and I will often alternate weekend mornings where we get to sleep in an extra hour or two.  Two extra hours of sleep is delicious.  Or, sometimes we barter with each other in the currency of sleep.  For example, I will offer Jon two extra hours of sleep on a Saturday morning if I can get the afternoon to go do something without any of the kids or if he will take the big kids to go do something without me so I can clean the house. 

Every so often we convince Jon's parents to take the kids overnight so we can go to a late movie and sleep in the next day.  Its awesome.  Or, when we are visiting my parents, they will offer (or sometimes we just assume they will) to get up with the boys so that we can sleep in several days in a row.  In fact, this summer when the boys & I were visiting my parents, my mom and I struck up a deal.  She would get up with the kids first thing in the morning and I cooked the lunches and dinners that week.  It was heavenly.  I got to try new recipes and I slept til 8:30 for four or five days in a row. 

Sleep is a wonderful thing.