Who Needs Sleep?

Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who needs at least 8 hours of sleep per night and could really use a lot more. If I could sleep in until 9 or 10 every morning, I think I probably would - Now that I have children, I'll never be able to test that hypothesis, but I'm fairly certain I could win some sort of medal in a sleep marathon.

Last night, I got about 3 decent hours of sleep with a few dozings spattered in between. So, as you can imagine, it was not a good night for me! For some reason, Ruthlande woke up a lot last night and cried every time she woke up. I thought it might be her hair clips (the hairstylist had said that she would most likely be able to sleep with them in, but that they might bother her), so I took them out on one side of her head, but that didn't seem to help. At 2:30 AM, I was able to soothe her back to sleep by holding her hand, but then I couldn't get back to sleep myself - I ended up tossing and turning until 3:00 and then deciding to head downstairs to watch the TV for a bit. At 4:00, I decided to turn the TV off and try again to fall asleep, but within minutes Ruthlande was once again crying. I went back upstairs. She was calm while I took more barrettes out of her hair, but as soon as she realized that I was planning on going back to bed, she started wailing. Nothing Scott or I did made her happy. We tried giving her a bottle, we tried stroking her hair, we even tried putting on the video of her momma - all to no avail. Finally, at 4:45, Scott gave up - he picked her up and laid her on his chest. Still, she cried, "Mama! Mama!" The poor little thing. So, I said, "I know I'm not Mama, Sweetheart, but I hope I'll do for now." I laid her down on my chest and she immediately stopped crying. She was asleep within minutes. It was pretty sweet and it made me happy to know that I made her feel secure enough to sleep. I'm guessing she probably didn't sleep in a bed alone in Haiti.

One thing, though. Remember how I said I'm one of those people who needs a lot of sleep? It also just so happens that I'm one of those people who really can't sleep with another human being laying on me (or while I'm laying on someone else, for that matter - as much as I love him, I can't fall asleep while snuggling with Scott). So, Ruthlande slept soundly for the next 3 hours and I kind of dozed on and off, trying desperately not to feel uncomfortable and not to move very much. Obviously, this can't be our permanent sleeping arrangements - not if I want to be able to function for the next month and a half. I'm hoping last night's events will be an anomaly - a one-time occurrence - I guess we'll just have to wait and see! Tonight, Ruthlande went to bed with very little fussing, so I'm hopeful.

The rest of the day today was good - Ruthlande was smiley and cheerful, so apparently the lack of sleep hadn't bothered her too much. And even I was feeling relatively energized during the day. I did take a catnap during the kids' naptime, but that was apparently all I needed. Thank you God! Oh, and Scott and I got to go on a little excursion this evening - my mom took care of the kids while we took advantage of our Great America seasons passes (which we got before we knew anything about Ruthlande coming). I got to go on roller coasters - so all is right with the world, as they say. :-)

Well, I'm ready to crash now. Wish me luck!