See these cute little sleeping girls? I took this picture last night.

And that was the last time they slept... Why don't they want a nap today? WHY???

Anyway, I have ended up in with the girls the last three nights in a row. Dude has been cranking out some long work hours and I figured he deserved five uninterrupted hours of sleep each of those nights and I volunteered to be the middle-of-the-night parent. By the time last night rolled around, I was major-league tired. That did not stop me, though, from staying up really late watching recorded So You Think You Can Dance and The Fashion Show (please don't judge me on my crap-television viewing habits - or go ahead and know that I really don't care). I went up to bed about 12:40am and as I was just about to pull back the covers to snuggle in with my sleeping Dude, the Bug woke up and started howling at the gate. I never even touched my bed. I went straight to the girls' room and hunkered down for the night. Only the Bug was UP. For hours. Dude said he heard me bitching at her about 4am. I know the particular bitching he's referring to because I got a little loud (can you say beyond tired and frustrated?). She finally fell asleep shortly after that.

All of a sudden, I awoke from a dream where I felt like I was being smothered...only to discover that a diaperless kid was crawling over my face. I sat up and Belly started laughing as I flipped her around. Yep. No diaper. I did a quick assessment of the scene: morning light coming in the window, water/pee-logged diaper in the far corner of the room, brand new package of wipes almost completely pulled out into a pile on the floor, every book and toy off the shelves and the Bug sitting with her back to me reading a Richard Scarry book. At which point Belly gave me a kiss and announced to the Bug, "Mama." The Bug turned around, made note of me, sorta looked like she was annoyed at having her reading interrupted, then promptly went back to her book. I grabbed my phone. 6:49am. To which I thought, WTF?! 

Seriously. Those girls clearly had been up for awhile. I can understand Belly having plenty of energy, but the Bug? Does she not need sleep anymore?! That just doesn't work for me. I'd like to say this in a way that does not mince words: I need her to sleep so that I can sleep. I am not a good parent at 4am. I beg. I swear. I want to cry. It's not pretty. 

Tonight Dude is on kid duty. I hope everyone sleeps through the night. I know I will.

There is one very positive thing that has come of this, though. Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Dude suggested that we leave Belly and The Bug in their own bed until one of them woke up since they were sleeping so soundly at that moment. I heartily agreed - especially because I knew that none of us were going to have a restful night of sleep once the transfer into our bed was complete. About twenty minutes later, The Bug woke up and Dude went in to see if he could get her to go right back to sleep. I fell asleep four seconds after he got up and the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off. I sat up and I was in our bed all by myself. In the same instant, I felt bad that Dude had slept in the girls' room with the sicklets and WONDERFUL that I had just had a solid night of sleep with zero interruptions. That hasn't happened since...well...probably some time in my second trimester of pregnancy? If only it hadn't been a gym morning. I could've slept until 7am instead of 5:45am. But I'm not complaining. Nooooooo no. I still feel for Dude who is most likely stumbling through his day upstairs in that office of his, but my body feels RESTED. It's a glorious, glorious thing.