Who needs sleep?

The Barenaked Ladies have a song that's appropriate for my state of mind today:

Who needs sleep?
(well you're never gonna get it)
Who needs sleep?
(tell me what's that for)
Who needs sleep?
(be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War)

Two nights ago I felt like those little kids in the commercial who can't sleep the day before they leave for their Disney World vacation.  I was too excited to fall asleep, too excited to go back to sleep after I got up at 2am to pee, and too eager to take a few more pregnancy tests when Eddie got up at 5:30am to wait until my alarm went off an hour later.

And I paid for it all day yesterday. By four o'clock, I was counting the minutes until Eddie would be home so I could hand the kids off to him and go directly to bed. Unfortunately, the first thing he did when he got in the door was throw up, and then he went directly to bed. Since I was unable to ascertain whether this was the garden-variety, too much work, too little food-induced vomiting, or a stomach bug, I decided to sleep in Bryce's bottom bunk (emetophobe that I am). At the time it seemed like a great idea-- I'd get a good night's sleep without worrying about coming down with some dread disease.

Yeah right. The bed started rocking at precisely 11:44. Bryce, who always has a hard time falling asleep, goes through periods where he has a hard time staying asleep too. Since he never comes to get us, I'm usually blissfully unaware of his insomnia unless I can hear him singing in his room. Last night was one of those insomniac nights. He talked about his friends Carley and Zachery for a while, sniffed his nose at regular intervals for at least an hour, and rocked the bed around like we were in the middle of a rough sea. I knew that he didn't know I was in the bottom bunk, and I wasn't about to make my presence known, because then he'd want to talk, so I held as still as possible for nearly two hours, trying to ignore the more and more pressing need to go to the bathroom.

Finally, at 1:32, I could tell he was asleep again and dared to get up to pee. But at that point I was WIDE awake. After reading for 15 minutes or so, I drifted off too.

Until 4:10, when Isaac started screaming. Unlike Bryce, Isaac is a fantastic sleeper. He goes down without a problem at 7 and either sleeps or plays happily in his crib until 7am. So when he was screaming, I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, he was still running a bit of a fever (started yesterday, no other symptoms, I'm guessing it might finally be teething since at 18 months he only has six teeth). So we cuddled on the couch for 40 minutes and he fell asleep. After 10 more pages in my book, I was asleep too.

But the peace didn't last. Isaac woke up again at 5:15. This time for good. Eddie was already up getting ready for work. Now Daddy is gone and Isaac is watching The Best of Thomas. I have a feeling he's going to be doing a lot of that today.

Because I'm going to be asleep.

--originally published 4/26/06