For a pregnant mom of three the words that really turn me on these days are as follows: 40 winks, nap, snooze, shut-eye, catnap, catch some z’s, nod, pause, rest, respite, shuteye, drop off, relax, siesta, conk out, hibernate, hit the hay, retire, and anything that has to do with slumber.

I had a faithful blog reader post on Facebook yesterday, “We want a blog! We want a blog!” I felt flattered that they noticed that I had not posted one yet, and at the same time I thought, “oh, crap” because I was really tired and have been so tired all week. I love my readers, especially those of you who have stuck with me over the year and a half plus I have been blogging, but I also wanted to cry out, “Leave me alone! I’m too tired! I just want to sleep!”

I was at a birthday party this weekend for one of my daughter’s classmates and a few of us moms were standing around talking about our weekends. It turns out none of us had any plans for the long Labor Day weekend. It was a rare moment in our lives because usually, for people with children, our lives are anything but dull or unscheduled. We joked that we should take advantage of the time and go for a mom’s night out. But I confessed that I would just rather go some place quiet and sleep.

Sleep has been evading our house lately. My husband has been working so hard and has been so busy that he hasn’t been able to sleep. He has been getting up very early, subsequently waking me up with him (unintentionally of course), and the kids. I’ve seen 4 am more times than I care to admit. Our kids have been up at 5:30 am on more than one occasion, which makes for a long day for me when they are.

Thursday was another one of those early morning days. Brent woke up and essentially took me with him. I rolled over and said something not so nice to him (the exact words conveniently escape me at the moment). But then it hit me that it also was our 9-year wedding anniversary and I couldn’t let the day start out with a negative comment to the man I pledged unconditional love to. So I apologized instantly and instead wished him a Happy Anniversary. Later, when I was still feeling bad about it, I felt redeemed when I told him that I didn’t care if he woke me up every day for the rest of my life at 4 am just as long as I wake up next to him. Aw! (Right?).

My esthetician, Audrey Crandell at Outer Beauty, just started a trial run of letting her clients take naps following a treatment in her very comfy reclining chair. I also heard that in some place in Japan there were public places for people to pop in and take naps. I learned that a few years ago this concept of napping became a part of corporate culture when companies started to create napping rooms for employees. Another acquaintance posted today on Facebook that she was going to start teaching a class in air napping; sleeping on hammocks. I think all of these folks are on to something.

I just don’t get it why my kids have stopped napping. It isn’t like they aren’t tired. I can tell when their behavior gets spotty. Olivia has been resisting naps ever since she started kindergarten. Even when she needs it she just refuses to go to sleep. To me, that is like when people eat one piece out of a box of chocolates and leave the rest on the counter for months after that; I just don’t get it. Kids spend so much time fighting naps and all most moms I know want is 8 solid hours of uninterrupted sleep.

So in addition to being too tired to blog I have been limited in my ability to actually work on the computer lately. I have been experiencing pretty solid headaches and I didn’t know if they were hormone related from the pregnancy or what exactly was causing them (I’m constantly telling myself that “It’s not a tumor!”) but after a great chiropractic adjustment and a visit to the eye doctor I am starting feeling much better. It also turns out that mama needs glasses.

So now I am enjoying my open calendar weekend, limiting my computer usage until my glasses arrive, and praying for lots of catch up on sleep in the meantime. I have just started to feel the little life growing inside me wriggle around and it reminds me that in addition to the daily joys of raising my little ones, I have so much more to look forward to in the coming months. I better stock up on rest while I am not too pregnant to enjoy sleeping through the night without getting up every two seconds. I just hope that my loved ones start sleeping more too.