What I Dream Of

You know what I dream of? I don't mean unconscious dreaming (although that is one of my favorite things in this life)....I mean what I long for....what I desire....well the answer is simple enough...I dream of sleep....I am talking about lay down at night not wake up until the morning kind of sleep. I used to be a good sleeper sometime before I had kids...as a matter of fact I never even thought about sleep...I just did it...I could sleep though a tornado until the middle of the after noon....then I got married and had kids and somewhere between all the "mama I needs" and the snoring I lost my gift. I now spend every night just praying to get at least a four hour period without interruptions, but most nights that seems impossible. I wake up every time the husband moves, sometimes I can't even fall asleep because the snoring is so loud, I wake up when the wind blows or the door creaks, I wake up when the dogs change positions, it's like I am on noise control and every single noise big and small must be analyzed by me....and when my kids are sick I may as well just forget that sleep even exists. Last night, for a very good example, Paige has had a HORRIBLE night cough for over a week....which has now also turned into an ear infection...lovely just lovely....well we settle down for the night...and I have her sleeping on a pallet right now so I can keep an eye on her and before I can even lay down my husband is snoring...and I am not talking about that little semi snore that can sometimes be cute (like when the kids do it)...I am talking about a full on attack against my sleep snore....louder than loud and more annoying than annoying. So I do what I always do in this situation...I kick the bed (hey, it's better than kicking him)...I don't really know what goes through his mind when I do this (he already knows I'm crazy) but it usually causes him to rollover allowing me at least three minutes before it starts again. Just as I am about to fall asleep...I can feel that favored dream state coming on...and Paige starts coughing...then crying...so I have to get up and get medicine...water...ear drops etc. This happened ALL night...all the while my husband is snoozing away. I have thrown around the idea of having my own room.....I have even snuck away a few times to the guest room in the middle of the night...my husband does not appreciate this at all (and my children always seem to find me)...I have heard him mutter some non-sense about separate rooms being bad for a marriage and I can't help, but wonder what he thinks an exhausted, annoyed, dog-tired, dead on her feet wife does for a marriage!! But since I am too tired to argue I told him I would compromise for the largest size bed that was ever made and a set of HEAVY DUTY ear plugs...and I suppose a bottle of NyQuil never hurt anyone either.