>Bad Mommy, Part Zillion.
>I heard his laughter in the darkness and struggled into semi-consciousness.
“Bruiser?” I said weakly, propping myself up on one elbow and peering into the bassinet beside my bed. I got a gummy smile in response. Yep. He was up for good. I looked at the clock and gasped.
5:00am. A new record.
For the past two weeks, Bruiser has been waking somewhere between 5:30 and 6am, no matter how late we put him to bed. It’s been hell in a household that has trouble getting anyone to turn out her lights before ten.
“I’ll get up with him,” my husband muttered beside me in bed.
“No, let me try to feed him,” I said. “Maybe he’ll go back to sleep. Miracles have happened.”
“I think something’s wrong with him,” Hubs whispered. “No baby wakes up this early and just stays up.”
Poor Hubs. He’d had to be mommy for a week while I was sick and was learning these things himself for the first time. I thought back to the countless random nights I’d gotten up with baby Punky at 3am and dozed on the sofa while she played with her toys for an hour, then went back to bed.
“No, this is normal,” I whispered back. “It sucks, but it’s normal.”
I fed Bruiser and wonder of wonders, he slowly stopped kicking and gurgling and peering around him. His limbs grew still. He closed his eyes. He went back to sleep.
Jackpot!
Carefully, I lowered him back into the bassinet and shot Hubs a warning glance. “He’s sleeping,” I mouthed. “Don’t make a sound.”
Oh-so-quietly, we put our heads on our pillows, closed our eyes, and slept for another hour and a half. It was sheer bliss. At least until we opened our eyes at 6:30.
“The girls have left,” Hubs said dully.
“What?!” I asked, sitting up.
“They’ve left for school. We just missed them.”
And this, my friends, is a perfect example of life in a house with two small children and two big ones. It was my 14-year-old’s first day of high school. We didn’t get to make her breakfast or see what she had chosen to wear. We didn’t get to take pictures of her getting into the car with her sister. We were too busy sawing logs upstairs, like those trashy drug addict parents you used to see in after school movies.
To be honest, 14 no doubt preferred it this way. She’s not exactly a morning person and prefers to keep her business to herself. But still. Damn. Damn, damn, damn.
>awwwwthat sucks. but you can take pictures of her when she gets home and ask her all about her day.Plus. Sleep? Lovin’ it
>Kids left without you waking, do you know that’s what I dream about????Oh, I long for the day that my kids shout, “bye mom!” on their way out the door for school, and I roll over, briefly coming out of my dream coma to mumble, “have a good day.”As it is, Im up early, making breakfast, nursing a baby, arguing over mismatched clothes and what to put in their lunchbox, trying to gather everyone and get them out the door in time.I want to sleep.But it’s a bummer to miss the first day, the special milestone, so maybe you can take her picture when she comes home, and pretend it was taken in the morning (a scrapbooker’s cheating tip.)
>If you take pictures tomorrow, it will still be your “first”, the second day is still an exciting time, too.Don’t sweat it.
>School has already started there? Ours open after Labour day long weekend!
>Sorry, that was me.She’ll be thrilled to see you when she gets home. That first day of HS is so nerve-wracking – she’ll probably be in a much better frame of mind this afternoon.
>I missed my daughter getting on the bus for her first day of kindergarten. I was having trouble getting her little brother out the door, so she and her dad set out before me. I turned the wrong way down the street and the bus came early, so I completely missed her getting on and didn’t even say goodbye. Take Busy Mom’s advice – I took my daughter’s picture getting on the bus the next day. Use a camera that doesn’t print a date!
>If it makes you feel any better, Miss C’s first day of kindergarten was yesterday and she would have no part of me photographing her before class (I had to coax her into one photo after we got home!)Hope Bruiser stops this crazy up at the butt crack of dawn business soon!
>How bittersweet. It’s so great that they can just get ready and go by themselves, but of course you want to see them do it and wish them well on the first day of school. Ah, well. At least you can pump her for details after school. ;^) (And hurray for more sleep!!)
>That sucks. Make a big deal out of it when she gets home. She’d probably prefer it at that time of day anyway.What the hell kind of shcool starts that early anyway? What teen can learn at 7am? Hell I didn’t learn a thing until noon.
>Out of the house by 6:30? What kind of insanity is that?Sounds like Bruiser’s all set for the school schedule, getting up at that hour! Why not send him off with the girls tomorrow? Show & tell! While Mommy sleeps!(My son has long been an early riser too — 9a.m. is mid-morning at our house!)
>It was my daughter’s first day of school today too. Wow tough, 6:30?!Have a great day!
>That really sucks.But at least you will be well rested for her when she gets home from her first day of highschool, and you can take pics of her then…immortalize the fact she survived her first day.
>Wow, your stepdaughters already started school ? Ours start just after Labor Day.I’m sure they will have plenty of stories to share when they get home. Then you can relieve yourself of the guilt by listening so very intently about who looked like a skank and who changed over the summer and what teacher sucks and so on
>Aww man, that breaks my heart! Definitely take some pics and make a big deal when she gets home!
>Well, knowing you, I’m sure you were there like gangbusters when she got home to talk over the day with her.And there will be lots of breakfasts. You know, I don’t remember a single “first day of school” breakfast but I remember breakfast time very well. My Dad used to cook us a warm breakfast and it’s the big picture that I remember.And 6:30???? —What the…. ???????
>first day of school?! it’s AUGUST 14th!!!!!
>Sleep trumps most things, I gotta say!Let us know how her day went!
>that’s two blogs in one, huh?hate it when my little guy gets up before the clock has a “7” in it. . . . . ironic as it sounds… sometimes putting them to bed eariler helpsbummer about missing that first morning, but what sweet sleeping sorrow it was, huh?
>awww that sucks – but I’m totally with ya on the “what the hell” of 5am LOL
>Awww! Sweetie! I’m sorry. My 14 YO started high school too.
>My 14 yr old daughter had her first day of high school yesterday too. How’d it go for your SD?
>Well, they loved it, but they came home with Major Attitude. It happens every year and it’s what I HATE about school starting up again. More on that later today (hopefully!) at Parents.com.
>That totally sucks. I do feel your pain with the baby waking at the butt-crack of dawn, though. I had to laugh when you said “miracles have happened”. I have tried the feeding and then putting him back down trick so many times. It hardly ever works.
>They still let you take pictures? I’m jealous. I can identify, though; my College Girl is a night owl, younger one is a morning kid.
>Your daughter will survive.Your son is likely going through sleep regression due to teething. Moxie has a good explanation of these phases.This too shall pass.
>Oh – I have just found your blog .. enjoying it, very witty!I have this problem. I have 17 and 12 === then a whole slew of little people. I do the same thing, the poor older ones are now on their own, at the mercy of my sleep needs.Everyone knows, if Mom is actually getting to sleep past 6am — you BEST NOT mess with that. Or else.