Beautiful Sleepless Nights

Having children will surely open your eyes to sleepless nights. Depending on how many children you have the length endured of sleepless nights can drag on feeling like an eternity. I have three children and even as they get older I still have flashbacks about the every 2-3 hour feedings, trying not to wake my husband each time I got up so he is bright eyed and bushy tailed at work. As the kids get older, you believe you will be able to gradually catch up on those lost years of sleep. Some of us 12 years go by and we are so accustomed to not sleeping we have learned to manage on minimal brain function. We become reliant on a cup of coffee or even four, not very good for us but well deserved. We might get a couple of nights out of a year where we sleep 8-9 hours. You never truly ever catch up. For me, I need 9 hours of sleep to feel like super woman. Anything less, it is hairy. So I am, 9 years without sleep. You have to count the year pregnant because who can sleep with all the change the body endures during pregnancy. Never mind the size of the belly towards the end. You know learning how to sleep sideways or on your back when you were always a belly sleeper was not an easy feat. So here we are, 9 years later, sleep deprived, and surprisingly different. Sleepless nights turn into beautiful moments of reflection and peace. The still of the night and freedom to just be yourself becomes welcomed. You realize when you used to lay in bed trying to put yourself back to sleep that you were missing something beautiful. There is beauty in calm. You hear things you have never heard before. You awake to watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee while rocking in a rocking chair. The sky unfolds from darkness into light and the colors get brighter. The sun sparkles and the hues of the sky become more pronounced in yellows and pinks until it is blue. You realize there is something to sleepless nights because it is just simply beautiful. Enjoy the moment. Take a deep breath. Enjoy the change. There is something to be said about being flexible. In the beginning, the sleepless nights were hard. It took many years for our bodies to get used to not sleeping. And then one day, it gets a little easier. The next even easier. Little by little you realize the beauty of sleepless nights.