A Good Book…Cause or Cure for Insomnia

I know people who can stay up all night reading a good book. Others fall asleep before they get to the second page. At our house books come in handy at all hours. Our sleep patterns have definitely changed since returning home with Doodlebug 6 months ago. I have yet to sleep an entire night without at least one child needing my attention. DD, who previously slept well, is now waking up every night crying. Although she doesn’t seem to be entirely awake, I still have to comfort her in some way to get her back to sleep. Doodlebug’s actions are very similar. Although they appear to be having night terrors, they are really not severe…just bad enough for Mommy to have to comfort them. Too make it easier for all of us to sleep, I pushed their two beds together and pushed them close to a wall. I was secretly hoping that they would comfort each other and I wouldn’t have to play musical beds all night.
Since Daddy Darling has to get up everyday and go to work, I usually try to go to their beds rather than allowing both girls to pile into ours. They wiggle and squirm way too much for anyone to get a good night’s rest!This is what their beds look like: (just an ordinary extra-wide bed…plenty of room for all 3 of us.)

When it’s unmade it looks like this: (pretty comfy except for the huge crevice where the mattresses fit together, but I can even handle this if they will just sleep. )

Here’s what I can’t handle: Just lift the pillows and you will see that both girls keep an ample supply of books stashed under their pillows! There could easily be as many as 20 books at one time. Can you believe it?

They read them at night before falling asleep and in the morning when they wake up early. This is no problem. It’s all of the hours in between when I am trying to sleep on them that causes the problem. LOL Oh what I would give for a good night’s rest!
Even when DD manages to make it into our bed, she brings a stack of about 10 books with her. No kidding! Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that they love books, but isn’t this a bit overboard? Oh well, I guess it could be worse…