Sleep

Eddie snoozing

Sleep and I have never been friends!!  My earliest memories are lying in my bed with my mom next to me, with me pinning her arm down so she couldn’t leave!  My mom used to turn the radio on in my room to help me sleep and that’s how I got so proficient at the song “Devil Went Down to Georgia.”  (I’m guessing my mom thought the country station was OK!)

My teenage years I did sleep better, usually until 11 AM.  One morning my Dad and Judge Simpson were standing in the road talking.  I was asleep in my room and these crows started squawking and driving me crazy.  I lifted up the window and yelled, “SHUTTTT UPPPP!”  My mom was sitting downstairs and looked out the window and saw Judge and Dad look and then huddle closer like they were trying to be quiet! LOL  I had no idea they were even there!

What really messed me up was having kids.  I wasn’t a great sleeper on a good day and then I had to get up all night with infants for almost a decade.  I would panic after feeding the baby and say, “OMG, if I don’t go to sleep RIGHT NOW, they will be up again in 2 hours!  Thank God for Dan who was the best infant Dad of all time.  He would get up and deal with all the non-feeding times the babies woke up.  He must have walked them miles in the night!

Mom and Bubba in the hospital

I had a total miracle happen right after I had Maggie.  A friend told me to wear earplugs.  I started by jamming tissue in my ears and it helped tremendously.  Then I moved on to real earplugs and it truly has saved/changed my life!  I know it sounds unmotherly to wear earplugs but I was waking up when a squirrel walked on the roof or the paper man threw a paper in the driveway.  Earplugs drown out the insignificant.  You still hear kids cry or doors slam but it filters out the unimportant sounds that drive light sleepers crazy.

The sad thing is my Bubs is a freaky sleeper too!  He is pretty much banded from sleep-overs.  One time he was at Maw Maw’s house and woke her up at 3 AM and told her he had been awake for an hour.  Makes me feel bad that I passed that bad trait on to him.  Jesus, give him peace!  I believe the devil loves to torment us in the night and steal our peace.  I wake up and panic over the stupidest things and lie there and obsess.  I always pray figuring the devil will leave me alone if I am praying and let me go back to sleep!  Sometimes, I feel as though all nature is against me!  Last night, I layed in bed listening to CRAZY raccoons fighting in the yard….geez!  I was thinking REALLY bad thoughts that involved a gun!!  I guess the good news is we won’t even need sleep in heaven or if we do, the devil won’t be there to bug! #sweetdreams