Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Half Sleep

When I was young we had a small beagle that slept with me much of the time. Every so often, in the middle of the night, I would suddenly wake up to see his face about two inches from mine. He didn't make any noise, he would just sit there and stare until I woke up. I'm not sure how that woke me up, but I must have somehow sensed I had a dog's face two inches from mine.

Guess what....motherhood sometimes isn't much different, except the size of the head changes. I'm soundly sleeping in my bed when suddenly I wake to see a head about 1 foot above me. My son doesn't make a sound, but I somehow sense he is there and wake with a start. Problem is, his head is much bigger, and in my half sleep state it is sometimes hard to recognize whose head is hanging over me! One day I told him I would prefer he just say something to me first so that I know who is sneaking up the side of my bed. I think in his half sleep state he forgets that request.

Here is another half sleep moment that I would like to change. I now publicly admit that I snore. My husband does too, so we just merrily snore our little duet together. The only time I ever really hear him snore is when he falls asleep first. Once I get my own steam engine warmed up, his snoring is completely drowned out. Sometimes I have to put my finger in my ear to drown out the sound long enough to get to sleep. Sometimes I jiggle the bed so that it slightly wakes him up--not enough to really wake him, but just enough to stop the snoring. The same is true for him, he only hears me if I fall asleep first. But his way of handling it is much less desirable. Quite often, I will be snoring away in my deep sleep when suddenly I feel a hand closing over my face. I don't know about you, but that is one of those movie images that only comes to me in nightmares. How many movies have you seen where the killer comes and puts the cloth over the woman's face to smother her? I think my husband thinks it will stop the snoring. What it does is wake me up. I told him I would much prefer if, instead of trying to smother me, he would just tell me to stop snoring. But just like my son, in his half sleep state, he doesn't think clearly, and resorts to the "murderer" method. Hmmm...what to do? Well, I do remember an experience with being woken up when I was young and studying martial arts. My alarm clock went off, and from a sound sleep I jolted awake and hit the alarm clock, cracking the face of it. Hmm....watch out Honey.

2 comments:

Inklings said...

This blog reminds me of the time I woke up to find my daughter's face about 3 inches from mine. She was crying, "Mom, I have to throw up, I have to throw up! What should I do, what should I do?" THAT'S just what you want to hear in the middle of the night when someone's face is three inches from yours. :0)

Anonymous said...

Umm...ear plugs sound like a really cheap 75 cent solution to both of your problems.
Or get a water fountain in your room, maybe that will drown out some of the noise.