Oh what a night

Not late December back in 63. No, last night at my house. My three-year-old had his first episode of pediatric insomnia. I say first because everyone has insomnia occasionally so I know it'll happen again, I just pray to God it doesn't happen for a very long time.

For various reasons, he was sleeping with me in my king-sized bed {reasons explained at the end of this post}. I came to bed at 10:30, and by 11:00 Cooper was flipping around his side of the bed like a fish out of water. He woke up and told me he had to go to the bathroom, number two.

So in we went, only all he did was pass gas and pee, and we trudged back to bed.

More flipping. Whining. Wanted to change beds.

We changed beds.

More flipping. More whining.

Wanted to sleep on the couch.

We went to the couch.

More flipping. Wanted to watch a movie.

At this point, I would have let him drive my car if I could have slept in the backseat.

I put in the movie and I woke up sometime halfway through A Bug's Life thinking he surely would have fallen asleep by now. Nope, he was having a ball sitting there in the dark watching his movie.

We went back upstairs to the big bed, where I let him watch tv.

At 1:30 my little chucklehead was crying, so we went downstairs and made him a bottle, and the three of us sat in his room while he drank that. I'm sure Griffin was a little curious as to why Cooper was in there, too, but he didn't say anything.

At 2:00 Coop was whining for cereal. Down we went, made a bowl of cereal, back up to bed. Yes, that's right. I let him eat a bowl of Cheerios in bed. He didn't spill a drop and ate every single ring. He wanted more but I said no, no more trips downstairs.

I turned off the tv and made him lay down, and I guess he probably fell asleep sometime after 2:30.

At 6:00 he was up! Just like clockwork, in a great mood, wanting to go downstairs and have pancakes.

I made him pancakes (the crepes with lots of eggs and milk) and he ate two plate-sized pancakes and went on to ask for and eat a bowl of Cheerios.

We've since gone to Bread Company, played outside and watched more cartoons. It's not even 9:00 a.m.! My mom is coming over soon to relieve me for a few hours so I can sleep. Thank God for my mother.

Why was it just me doing all this? My husband has been out of town since last weekend. He was going to come home tomorrow but this morning he said he's coming back tonight. Thank God. I don't think I would survive another night like last night, followed by a day caring for my monkeys all by myself.

It certainly puts single parenthood into perspective.

- H