Awake at 4 AM

You'd think I would be able to sleep in a little this AM. I don't have to be at school early to survey for the XO project, I don't have class today, and I'm planning to work at home. But, n-o-o-o-o! I woke up at 4 AM thinking about all the other things I needed to do today to get ready for tomorrow and things I want to work on today.

Let's hope it is a productive day today!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

I Should Be Asleep . . .

but I'm not. I tried going to sleep and really thought I would, but as is often the case when my mind is 'running' I couldn't sleep. So, I got up and tried to do a few things semi constructive at least.

I've been wanting to post for the past few days but work has been so busy that I've barely had time to spend a few minutes with Bo and Callen before it is time to put Callen to bed. It always seems like the fall semester is frenetic feeling. I don't know why I hoped this one would be any different.

I had a grant project ending this week, 2 reports due for 2 other grant projects, an R&R (revise and resubmit for the non-academics reading this) on a manuscript that had to be done by 9/30 which required way more work than I had anticipated I'd have to do, a review of a proposal due for NSF, my normal teaching and service obligations, an abundance of research project related meetings, and making plans to go to my 25 year high school reunion.

Yes, you read that correctly - it has been 25 years since I graduated from high school. Oh, how old I feel just typing those numbers! I remember when Bo and I had just been married a very short while he was scheduled to go to his 25 year HS reunion. I remember thinking - wow, can he really have been out of high school that long? In case you haven't deduced it already, he is slightly more than a decade older than me. Yes, I was just a child when we married : ).

So, this weekend I'll see old friends and classmates that I haven't seen in at least 5 years since our 20 year reunion. I wonder how many people I'll not recognize and how many won't recognize me. I received my new passport in the mail today; my picture was not what I had hoped. Time has not been as gentle to me as I would have hoped. I actually liked my prior passport photo. I wonder how time will have affected my former classmates. . .

Maybe next week I can post some pix from the reunion. Hmmm, maybe more realistic would be to say maybe I can actually get the 200 plus pix off the digital camera that have been on there for way too long. Then, maybe I could post some updated pix of Callen and of the reunion. Wish me luck!

Here's to old friends, aging, and time . . .

One Night Down...

Yes, Callen FINALLY slept through the night again for the first time since we returned from our trip to NC 2+ weeks ago! Oh, I so hope it continues!!!! Send good thoughts our way so that our little girl continues to sleep through the night.

The Sleep Saga

continues unfortunately.... We heard a slight noise on the monitor last night but then it stopped. A couple of minutes later we heard Callen screaming. I rushed into the hall heading to her bedroom but then noticed the crying was coming from DOWNSTAIRS! My heart leaped into my throat as I pictured my daughter laying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily she hadn't fallen. However, she had made her way downstairs and been scared by one of our cats. This is the first time she's ever gone down the stairs at night like this in the darkness. We calmed her down and put her back to bed a couple more times before she finally stayed down. Luckily we have a door at the top of our stairs that we can lock. I'm sure the cats didn't like not being able to come upstairs but at least our little wanderer couldn't try it again last night. I had so hoped she would be back into decent sleeping patterns by this point....

Every Time We ...

go on a trip and Callen ends up sleeping with us rather than in a separate bed, it is always hard to get her back to her normal sleeping patterns when we return home. This has, once again, been the case this week since she and I returned from the beach on Sunday. Every night she has had trouble going to bed. We put her in bed, she gets up several times, wants to come to our bed, etc. It has been at least an hour later than normal when she's finally gotten to sleep, only for her to wake up usually 2-3 hours later and come into our room.

Before we went out of town she'd really gotten better about sleeping through the night in her own bed. Now, we're up all during the night and end up pulling her back into our bed b/c we're too exhausted to do anything else. I know we need to just keep putting her back in her bed and/or let her cry it out again, but I keep hoping she'll get better and not keep waking up. Any other suggestions?

Shelia (very tired from not sleeping well any of the past 5 nights)

Early Waking

We had a fun-filled day yesterday and when I went to bed last night, I was really tired and went to sleep almost immediately. However, 4 AM rolled around and I was awake and haven't been able to get back to sleep. I occasionally have trouble sleeping -- usually it is when I have lots on my mind related to work, a trip, or something that is upcoming in my life or that of my family.

I often times will stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. After an hour or so of rolling around, however, I usually get up and think 'I'll get some work done' : ). We'll see how successful that idea is tonite/this morning...

One reason I couldn't go back to sleep this morning is because a new call for proposals was released from NSF that I plan to submit something for. So, my mind kept thinking about things for the proposal. I've not found a good way to turn off my mind/brain when I wake up in the middle of the night.

Any suggestions for how to get back to sleep when your mind won't turn off in the middle of the night?