pee sheets and bloody noses, bad dreams and nightmares

It's 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and here I am, writing a blog.  Put the time and the title together and you get the idea... About a half-hour after the pee sheets incident, there was the bad dream incident, and now there's the "I can't go back to sleep" incident.  So you get a blog. :)

PEE SHEETS AND BLOODY NOSES

This doesn't happen often, but it still happens.  There are those Friday nights where we stay up a little later, drink hot chocolate a little later (yes, it's almost May and we are still drinking hot chocolate), and I forget to remind my sweet five year old to take a pit stop before she hops in bed.  And tonight, it just happens to be MY bed.  The one with the giant comforter, and the duvet, and the big, thick blanket, and the king-sized sheets.

And we have the nights where the air is a little too dry, the humidifier doesn't cut it, and the sweet five-year-old nose can't handle it.  On my WHITE comforter.  And the pharmacy... doesn't have peroxide.

Moments like these make me miss the conveniences of a normal-sized washing machine, an actual DRYER, and oh...  a full-sized bath tub.

Oh, the things I took for granted.

But then I'm reminded of the people that I've seen, the people that I've met, the people that I know...
The people in the Philippines.  The ones WITHOUT beds or even sheets.  The ones WITHOUT even a half-sized washing machine, a drying rack, or even space for a drying rack.  The ones WITHOUT running water, or even drinking water.

Oh, the things I still take for granted...

how clothes are dried in the Phillipines...  humbled by this picture

BAD DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

These happen more frequently than the pee sheets and the bloody noses.  And these are hard because I know I am not going back to sleep after these.  And I know that my little 5 year old is scared.  And even though she is sleeping peacefully now, there is a lot of fear instilled in her little heart to be having so many bad dreams and nightmares.

Sometimes they are little things (big to her, of course) and sometimes they are a lot deeper...  like being kidnapped, or mommy dying (ah, heart wrenching).  Tonight, it was just a "bad dream".  She touched a cake and it turned into fire!  It didn't burn her, but scared her and she woke up crying.  Really... where does this stuff come from?

And then there's the mommy battle of "I just want to get some sleep" vs.  "It's okay honey, you are safe and Mommy's right here".  And in those moments, I sacrifice a few more hours of sleep to comfort my sweet baby.  It's not always the easy thing to do.  But it's the path with least regrets, more peace, and a comforted child.

SHOUT OUT TO MOMS, DADS, AND CARETAKERS

Most people have no idea what you go through at 3 a.m.  And people often wonder why you are the quiet one at the lunch table, or you aren't as enthusiastic as you usually are, or you are so scatterbrained you can barely hold a conversation.

I get it.  You are tired.  And your biggest desire and longing is to just have one night, just ONE night of uninterrupted sleep.

As long as we have kids, interrupted sleep is inevitable.  So, I pray that somehow, your interrupted moments turn into sweet moments, your loss of sleep is someway, somehow redeemed, and that that conversation at the lunch table... wasn't all that important anyway. ;)

4:34 a.m....  going to TRY to catch some shut eye...  even though the sun is already rising.