4.5 People

I came downstairs at 2:36 a.m., shortly after Griffon woke me up with his nonstop booger problems. It’s now 3:45 a.m., and I’m still awake.

Anneke fell asleep on the couch last night. Sweet girl. She has *always* fought sleep so hard that she sort of exists in a constant state of tired. Probably explains a lot of the whining. Sometimes, it just catches up with her. Last night, she fell asleep around 6:15 p.m. while Griffon was eating dinner (mostly pouring his cup of water on the floor after a dinner composed primarily of Pirate Booty), Brad was cooking dinner, and I was helping Kieran with his homework.

She opened her eyes about an hour and a half later and started laughing maniacally at something. I asked her what she was laughing at, and she just kind of looked through me and kept laughing. I think I got her to respond, “That,” at some point, but mostly, she was just saying these infant non-words. After 10 minutes or so of this, Brad picked her up and held her like a baby (so sweet), and she eventually closed her eyes again. He took her upstairs and put her in her bed, but she came into our room and got in bed next to me at around midnight, shortly after Griffon had done the same (he goes down in his own bed in our room now, but cries to join us at around midnight each night).

So. I couldn’t sleep. My belly is getting bigger, and I have to rest it on the bed now in order to avoid the feeling that it will stretch itself to the point of separating from my body. So, Anneke was on my left, and Anneke has *no* concept of space while sleeping. She generally lays on *some* part of my body, not excluding the boobs or belly, even if there is more than a foot of space left to the edge of the mattress. Tonight, she was jacknifed into a sort of “L” shape, thankfully facing the edge of the bed, but jutting her cute little denim-covered booty in my belly. If she faces the edge, though, I can face her, as the belly is generally safe from major harm by kicking or trampling. So, that part was fine.

Until Griffon stopped being able to breathe while sucking his thumb because of his giant booger problem. Griffon has the *most* excellent boogers, or “boodies,” as he has recently started calling them. So, Griffon was on my right, writhing back and forth between me and Brad, shoving his blankie bear in my face because he really didn’t *want* his blankie bear because blankie bear gives him this Pavlovian thumb-sucking response, and he couldn’t suck his thumb and breathe at the same time. So, I was trying to deal with him without turning my body to face his because that would invite the belly kicking. I just couldn’t do it.

I finally hauled my pubic symphysis out of bed (and I could not do the rolling I need to do to the edge of the bed to avoid the pain this incurs because Anneke was there) and turned on the lights. This, of course, woke everyone up, and then, I couldn’t even see the giant boodies that I know are making the hissing sound that means Griffon can’t breathe. Booger extraction fail.

So. I put Griffon in his bed (which he loved), turned out the lights, and came downstairs. Because I *know* myself, and I know after wrestling with all that, there is no way I can go back to sleep. I have to do something like write for some time before I feel the sleepiness again.

But now it is 4:29 a.m., and I’m supposed to wake up at 6ish? Or is it 7ish? It’s too early, whatever it is, after a night with 4.5 people in the bed.