5 Going on 50

It is always fun for me to check on my daughters before I go to bed. They have such different "sleep personalities." Roo's signature sleeping position is what I call "The Frog." While in the NICU, she was often positioned to sleep on her stomach with her arms and legs bent, making her look like a tiny frog. (Yes, babies should sleep on their backs, but when they're hooked up to a zillion monitors I guess it doesn't matter). She still ends up in this position when she's in a really deep sleep.
Sue Sue often sleeps on her back. I don't know how she finds this comfortable. I am not a back sleeper. Still, most nights that's what she prefers.
Cakes is often sprawled on her stomach, with her arms and legs going every which way. Typically she will roll around and end up sleeping across the width of her bed. I end up moving her back to her pillow almost every night.
And then there's Tortilla. Like her sisters she has a pillow and a Pillow Pet on her bed. For the longest time she would sleep on her Pillow Pet and I would have to move her other pillow to give her more room. Then one night she said "Someone keeps moving my pillow." I explained to her that I had moved it so she wouldn't be cramped in her bed. She looked at me and said "That's my back pillow!!" So now each night I fight the urge to rearrange her pillows, no matter how uncomfortable she may seem. After all, her "weary" 5-year-old body needs the comfort of a back pillow!
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Who Needs Sleep?

There is only one thing I truly miss about the "pre-kid" days. Sleep. I am not a morning person. I can't drink caffeine, so there's nothing to give me that extra edge in the morning. (I do like to think that if I could drink coffee I might actually be more motivated to get out of bed in the morning). I am not a night owl, either. I start to decompress by 7 pm-ish. I like to be in bed by 10 pm or close to it. Working two nights a week until 10 pm or midnight does not help me. Ideally, I need 8-9 solid hours of sleep. Like that's going to happen. On the nights I work, I'm lucky to clock 5 1/2 to 6 solid hours of sleep.
Before kids, Hubby and I worked opposite schedules. This made weekends glorious... at least when it came to sleep. He usually worked Saturday mornings and I was off... so I could sleep until my little heart was content. 
My daughters are up at the crack of dawn. No, that's a lie. They're usually up before the crack of dawn. It doesn't matter what time they go to bed. For them, 6:30 am is sleeping in. I've tried everything I can think of: heavy curtains, staying up late when there's no school the next day, wearing them out with walks, bike rides, etc. All this does is make them well-rested and ready to jump out of bed the next morning.
When I was a teenager I slept in on the weekends. I always wondered why my parents were up so early when they didn't have to be.  My mom claimed it was because she got used to getting up early when I was younger. I believed her... until now. As soon as my daughters understand (and act upon) the joy of sleeping in, you better not call my house too early because no one will answer.

Vivid Nightmares

I'm pretty sure I've posted before about my nightmares/night terrors. I'm not sure my bad dreams even fall into either of those categories. I often wake during a bad dream and am convinced I'm still in that dream. Typically it involves spiders or people in my room. For instance, I'll be convinced a huge spider is coming down on me from the ceiling...and I'll wake up in a dark room with zero visibility and be convinced I can see the spider. Or I'll be having a dream (not even a nightmare) during which someone is talking to me. I'll awake thoroughly confused and cannot figure out how/why that person is in my house.
For awhile, I was convinced Sue Sue had inherited my sleeping habits. She would regularly whine in her sleep and I couldn't wake her from her slumber to help her feel better. She hasn't done that for months, so I'm hoping whatever was bothering her has passed. For me, these vivid dreams happen mostly when I'm stressed or really tired. Some nights I even mentally prepare myself before I go to bed, knowing I'll likely have some type of vivid dream.
Last night, something fairly bizarre happened. I went upstairs to go to bed and was giving each of my daughters a final kiss. Cakes sat up in bed. I leaned over and asked her if she was OK. She started hitting me and scratching at me. She grabbed my glasses and threw them on the floor. I actually had to grab her arms to stop her... and then she went back to sleep. She claims to have no memory of this incident.
I'm not surprised by her actions. Who knows what she was dreaming about, but I'm convinced whatever it was carried over into her seeing me in her room. I once was having a bad dream, felt myself waking up from it screaming, but then became terrified because in my dream/reality someone was holding me down. Hubby had felt me start to go into a panic over my dream and in his sleep-induced state, thought the best thing to calm me down was to put his arm over my chest so I wouldn't start flailing around. Let's just say he is under strict instructions to never, ever try that method again.
Nightmares, night terrors, vivid dreams, whatever you want to call them, they're no fun. I just hope for my daughters' sakes, these tumultuous nights are few and far between.