Dormez vous

Saturday 13th April

Today's adventures have been a stay indoors, it's raining, let's make an annual tradition of making cheesecake and watching films to celebrate our anniversay...at least until we have recovered from the general lack of sleep that small children bring with them, then we will return to our former city gallivanting, sight seeing and cultural encounters. But for now, we're happy for the rest, the relaxation and being together.

Sleep is a major topic at the moment. Margaret Thatcher famously only sleet for four hours at a time, something which daddy often does but i can't even imagine! I spent a lot of my life being told when to get up (and shouted at because I wasn't getting up and I was going to be late), a lot of times being told it was silly to sleep in the day and just to go to bed early and hearing of and reading research that says eight hours is the correct number of hours sleep and always feeling tired! It wasn't until I first went to Uganda and we stayed with some friend's of daddy's that I realised it was okay to sleep when your tired. The lady we were staying with excused herself in the middle of the afternoon because she was tired and was going to take a nap. This was revolutionary to me. It was what I had dreamt of for years but had been denied and here was a woman confidently doing just that! I don't know if this was when i started my journey to finding my own sleep happiness or whether this was the point that i started to feel okay about it but things did change from here on. 

The next biggest realisation for me was getting married. Daddy has completely different sleep rhythms to me and it took us a long time to adjust to each others sleeping habits as they are so completely different. There are nights when I can go to bed solo and wake up in the morning solo and have no idea whether or when daddy did sleep. So, i got to a point in my life where i could recognise and be happy with the idea that i needed more sleep than *average* and then we started having a family. Babies don't care how much sleep you want or in when you want it! But it's working out okay and i don't sleep as much as i would like but it's okay because if i need to and i can then i do, without hesitation or guilt.

And our children, they choose their own sleep patterns. And they are all different. Plum has struggled today. Sometimes it's the change of venue or situation, sometimes it's the transfering from car to sling or buggy or bed, today i don't know why but she hasn't settled despite being obviously tired. Generally she will have either two  x one hour naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon or she will have one sleep mid afternoon maybe one or two hours and then settles down for the night between 8.30 and 9.30pm but this is not written in stone! 

Bean tends to rise between 6-7am and rarely takes a daytime nap. He will go to sleep about 8.30pm sometimes 9pm depending on what we're doing in the evening.

Pumpkin gets up more often than not with his brother between 6 and 7am but i suspect he would like to sleep longer. He can stay awake all day but will often zone out in the afternoon for a while or fall asleep on the sof or in the car and then go to bed between 9 and 11pm. He is a much more even tempered boy when he does this. If he stays awake all day he will sleep from about 8pm. 

For today daddy and I will probably rest without sleeping but enjoy the down time :)