The Gift of Sleep

My mom says the first night they brought me home from the hospital was very exciting. They put me in my little bassinet and then crashed in their own bed for some much needed rest. I think my brother was still up watching Mr. Ed or something. Kidding. But he is way way way older than me.

Oh yeah, back to me and the first night I spent at home as a newborn. Apparently my Dad woke up the next morning around 8:00 and jumped out of bed panicking and yelling, "Anne, Anne, something is wrong with Marianne. She never woke up last night." This sort of scared my poor tired Mom.

Turns out I was comfy cozy and still snoozing away. I'm a good sleeper. Until recently at least. Now a good night's sleep seems to come every other week or so. Which is quite the bummer.

I was beginning to feel helpless and wondered if I had to accept some kind of over forty sleep pattern I keep reading about in know-it-all Health magazines. Because surely my lack of sleep had nothing to do with my tendency to stretch the day as far as I could into the late late night and, sometimes, right into the next morning.

Maybe it was on one of those sleepless nights when I read Chris Rice's recent article on Sleep. You'll have to go read it for yourself, but one thing he mentions is how sleep is one of God's gifts to those he cares for and loves. Suddenly my late night marathons seem selfish and greedy. It's making me think about my bedtime in a whole new way.

So I may need to be brushing my teeth instead of googling - right now. Even though I know, from past experience, that it is definitely possible to do them simultaneously and still do them both quite well. But I'm liking this new approach to bedtime. And his personal twist on "counting sheep" has come in handy, ummm, twice I think. Seems to help and I'm all for getting to sleep quickly.

Sleep tight. :-)