My brain is a bit sluggish today. I was woken up at 3:30am by a phone call (non-emergency variety) that made it impossible for me to find my way back to dreamland as I’m a fairly light sleeper. But it got me thinking…

I’m no stranger to the sleepless night.

Before kids, it was up all night, sleep in the next day, just drink more coffee to make up for that lack of sleep & do it all again tomorrow.

Then when the kids came, it was a myriad of different reasons for the sleepless nights:

• I can’t get comfortable because I’m pregnant

• Late-night feedings

• Late-night "where am I?" cries from the growing baby

• Noises in the middle of the night when my husband was deployed

• Snoring by said husband

And we went back through this cycle again with baby #2. Then a new cycle of reasons for sleepless nights was introduced:

• I’m teething and my teeth hurt from the little one

• Potty training from the big one

• More snoring

• more deployments

• Potty training from the little one

And then? Silence. We’re at a gold spot in parenting where the babies sleep through the night from sundown (ish) to sunrise (hopefully a bit later). This mean mommy who needs her sleep has told the children that if they wake up because they wet the bed, the offending sheets and jammies go in the tub, they get new jammies & a sleeping bag. I do not complain if I’m woken due to illness (though I still complain about the snoring).

But this, too, shall pass. These restful nights will be supplanted by fretful nights when the kids reach their teen and tween years.

In the meantime, I’ll just have to cope with the snoring.