My son woke me from a sound sleep at 2 a.m. last night, calling that he needed to go potty. It’s rare for him to need to go in the night, but when he does, he is of the firm conviction that he requires company. This is perhaps our fault, because we made an iron rule when he moved from a crib to a toddler bed that he was never to get out of bed without permission, unless it was to use the bathroom. The first part sunk in nicely; the latter part did not.

In any case, I got up with him for a couple minutes, then headed straight back to bed. I then lay awake for the next 2 1/2 hours.

I don’t know what it was about having children that forever destroyed my ability to sleep like a normal person. I now require ear plugs and a sleep mask, and even then, I go through regular bouts of insomnia: not falling asleep despite being exhausted, not being able to get back to sleep if I wake in the night, waking too early in the morning… I knew going into kids that I wasn’t going to sleep much with little ones who were not sleeping through the night. I did not realize that even once my kids were sleeping all night, I might not be able to. It’s possibly a genetic issue kicking in now that I’m in my 30s, as there’s a family history of insomnia starting around this time. Whatever the case, it sure makes for a tired mama.

Also, my preschooler is running a 100.5 fever. I expected this. After all, we’ve all been healthy for a good two weeks. I was talking to a friend about our constant illness and the fact that I just have to hope all these relatively minor bugs are building my kids’ immune systems so that when they get older, they’ll be able to avoid major illness. It’s what keeps me going through all the snotty noses, fevers and crabbiness.

As always, we just keep plugging along. Life is busy around here, and we’re looking forward to a trip to Florida to visit dear friends next week. Let’s hope we can get this latest round of sickness out of the way before then.