tryptophan-tastic

It should really come as no surprise to anyone, but like most overwhelmed, overextended mums, I have a difficult time sleeping these days. I am quite capable of passing out 3 seconds after my giant melon hits the pillow, but I wake up in the wee hours of the darkest time of night with worries (Did I lock the front door? Are all of the kids snug in their beds? Do we have enough coffee for the morning? Do I have any clean pants to wear or am I going to to have to put on the same jeans that I have worn for the last 9 days in a row?). I am restless and anxious about not being able to recover my lost time until I finally drift back off to Lala Land only to be rudely clobbered in the face by a Mickey Mouse and a Minnie Mouse and several other stuffed critters that came into my bed with my best toddler and another youngling on the other side who wants to snuggle, but can't get comfortable, despite 25 minutes of thrashing effort. The dog gets rolled over on and then the husband noisily gets up to start his day. The demands for food and attention begrudgingly lure me from out of my cozy spot and my feet hit the floor like bricks - clumsy and heavy. It's like Groundhog day - everyday.

I used to be able to take naps to ease the pain of the REM deprivation, but since my sweet baby doll has decided that she is prematurely done with mid-day snoozes and I really don't entirely trust her unsupervised for any length of time, I drink more caffeine and fumble through the day and live for 7:30P when I can, once again, crawl beneath the covers. Then when I was at my most desperate point, amidst the pressure of holiday shenanigans, a beautiful, wonderful, magical thing happened (usually only once a year) and it's called, "my favorite turkey coma". I am not sure if it was the fortuitous fowl itself, or a combination of 4000 wakeful nights and carbohydrate overload and boring football and DS downloads, but I passed out like a girl at a frat party (so I've heard...). I dreamt. I drooled. It was real, too, because I don't remember hearing little voices arguing from the other room or hollers at the TV when the Patriots won (they did win, right?). I woke up with tears in my eyes because it was so amazing - a solid 90 uninterrupted minutes of quiet time - not the kind of phony bologna teaser nap where you try to close your eyeballs and no mattter what, you just can't nod off, which, by all accounts is way worse than no shut eye at all. Methinks Christmas came early this year because that was, quite honestly, the best gift EVER. Either I made it to the Good List or somebody slipped something in my sparkling juice, I don't care how, but I would be pleased as punch if I could do it again!