Sleep

As you might know, sleep is the most precious commodity imaginable in a house with children. People have died over sleep deprivation issues. The complication to this is that sleep deprivation in the child-filled house only has a passing relationship to whether or not the children are sleeping.

For instance, last night, Maren was awake from 1 until 1:15, from 4:15 until 4:30 and from 5:50 until 5:52. That's a grand total of 32 minutes. Brynna slept through the night. So, if I spent 8 1/2 hours in bed, then I should have gotten approximately 8 hours of sleep, subtracting the 32 minutes that Maren was awake. Correct? No.

Actually, I was awake from 1 until 1:55, because I had to stay in the rocking chair until she was completely asleep so she wouldn't wake up when I put her back down. Then I dozed off, then woke up and had to sit still until my foot woke up, then moved her to the crib, got back in bed and stared at the ceiling for a while.

Repeat at 4:15. Then at 6ish, I got up, got Maren and brought her to bed with me. She immediately went back to sleep and I spent the remaining 2 and a half hours half sleeping and trying not to smother my child in her sleep. So, really, I only had 4 and a half hours of good sleep and 2 hours of half sleep.

The Husband, on the other hand, didn't get up with Maren at all, but woke up at 7 and couldn't get back to sleep because he is in the habit of getting up at 5:30. Which is also, by the way, why Maren woke up at 5:50. Her clock runs a tad slow.

So today, the adults are all in a half-life type of haze. If the children were smart enough to stage a coup, this would be the day to do it. Of course, this day isn't all that different from all the others, so really any day would do. They could take over the house in ten minutes flat.

Brynna's probably not the "bloodless" type when it comes to coups, but if she promised us naps every afternoon, we would consider her a benevolent leader and not try to wrest back control. I assume she would lead the charge, being as she's the oldest and capable of speech.

Of course, if Maren led the charge, we'd get two naps a day and an 8:00 bedtime, which might be the downfall of her kingdom. If we were well-rested, we might just be good parents and get everything back together.

So, I guess the lesson of today's post is that when you overthrow a government, you should be kind to its citizens, but not too kind. Too kind will get you overthrown right back.