My Dream Vacation

In my transition to motherhood, I can honestly say the selfish thing that I most greatly miss, is sleep. I am a self proclaimed, proud, not-ashamed- to-admit-it, Night Owl. I don't understand why our society looks at people who (it's been biologically proven) are hardwired to perform better in the dark of night, with disdain and as a lesser individual? I have always hit my most creative peak going on 9 pm. I was one who could work a 12 hour night shift on 4 hours of sleep. However, should I have to awaken before the good God ever intended, to be at work at 6:30am, and had not received a solid 8 hours of sleep the night before, you would find me praying to porcelin in the bathroom. It was the opposite for some of my coworkers; 3am would roll around, and they would be pushing back naseau.

Anyway, knowing this is how I biologically am, how I have always been, I of course married a Morning Dove. Then gave birth to a Morning Dove. (Gratefully my baby Morning Dove isn't wired to arise at 5am, like my nephew... Maybe he isn't a Dove, but a Rooster!) Maybe it isn't even the sleep I miss, but the ability to awaken on my own accord. In the past year and a half, the number of A: nights I have slept without being awoken at least once, and B: the number of mornings I have gotten to sleep until my body says "Wake up sleepyhead!" has been less than a dozen. I know that.

I know some of you will say, "Well just go to bed earlier!" However, when your toddler doesn't go down until sometime between 7:30-8:30, that then leaves you with 2-2.5 hours to do whatever you want, like watch a movie uninterrupted, as a couple! And before you know it, its 11:30 or later, and at 4am, I awaken to a cat on my chest, one on my side, and one on my feet who have decided the snack bar should be opened. So I get up to kick them out, and then it is 7 am. Thus this is my life.

Some dream of a vacation as a sunny island, a ski slope, maybe a cruise. For me, my bed, my quilt I have had since I was 8 or 10, and a week of 8 to 10 hours a night of uninterrupted sleep, where I wake up on my own, and maybe even dream! That is the vacation for which I long! Funny how priorities change with motherhood!