It all starts at about 6:00pm … you start to get the little ones ready for bed. Dinner is done and now bath time has begun. You hope that they have lost some energy from the full day of outdoor play. You hope that tonight will be the night that you get more than two hours of sleep at a time or two hours of work done at a time. Tonight needs to be the night that these two boys sleep all night long because you fear if they don’t sleep tonight all night long, that you may not make it through another long day of lack of sleep symptoms, tired eyes, yawning mouth and added weight.

The pressure is on. The boys sleep for three hours and you have hope, hope that they will sleep all night long in their own room, in their own beds because after all your queen size bed has become too small to have two children added to it during the warmer than usual nights.

It started with the now four year old who never really slept through a night all of his life. He started to sleep through the night just fine and something happened, making it impossible for him to sleep longer than just a few hours at a time. Next came the youngest child, and he always slept great even though he was a light sleeper. Once the youngest turned age two it seems all heck broke loose in the house and sleep became something we have forgotten about.

Sleep is truly something no one in my household knows much about. We do not get it and if we do it’s at the expense of someone else not getting enough. Taking turns sleeping in only works so often when you have one in school and activities and appointments to get to early in the morning. Life as we know it has been this way for four years, tearing at our hearts, our minds and taking its toll on our bodies and mind.

How can one think straight and work and be positive when their brain is barely reminding them to eat? This life needs to change because as much as she holds onto the hope that tomorrow the boys will sleep through the night, she also knows that realistically it will take a lot longer than just one more night to turn this situation around. Four years has been enough, enough is enough and no matter how frustrated and tired she is, she refuses to give up hope, she knows that one day these lack of sleep nights will be missed because her boys will be grown men and no longer even sleep in the same house as their Mama.

Something needs to change, but how will it change?