a good night's sleep

One of the benefits of parenting two pre-schoolers at my age is that I'm always ready for a good night's sleep! Like my years as a junior doctor I realise that sleep is the ultimate luxury, coming soon after breathing eating and drinking. I love to be able to go to bed soon after nine and don't do well at all if I'm up after eleven. Last night (Monday is our date night when Hannah baby sits) Paul wanted to go to a movie that finished after eleven but instead I made him change to a shorter one so we could be home soon after ten - we saw Killers and it was so funny I laughed out loud in the cinema (this is very unusual for me) They were advertised a new film which at first I honestly thought was called "Eat, sleep, love" - it's actually eat, pray, love.

Paul was away in Australia for three days last week so the need for sleep became even more intense as I had to manage mornings alone - I tend to have a shower think -"Oh I feel just lovely and I'm all ready" - then remember "now there's three more to dress!" (Noah does dress himself but if I don't get the clothes out and tell him which order they go on then he ends up in very odd assortments!

At home group last Tuesday I had been coughing my way through he evening. At the end everyone said "We won't stay for coffee, you sound like you need a good night's sleep" and I fell into bed by ten and slept without interruption for eight and a half hours. A week later and I still remember it fondly - most nights we are woken at about midnight by Isaac falling out of bed (we are trying him in the tiny bed that Paul made from a cot)

then we're woken at about one by Heidi crying (she will only settle for me but is gradually taking less time to settle) often around 3 or 4 by Noah sneaking downstairs to watch TV and soon after five by Isaac waking up and needing to come into our bed when we can all hopefully doze for another hour or so.

We turn the radio on soon after 6.30 and at 7am they have a bird call followed by the pips and some music. Isaac and Heidi love to bounce along to the music to start the day, then Paul makes our morning drinks and a bottle for Heidi and we start the school preparation rush.

Isaac has now started morning kindy and yesterday we had a meeting about starting school - they've decided he doesn't need a story writing book! He will do four mornings a week to start and for one term Noah and he will be at the same school. Then after Christmas Noah will move to the secondary school that Lily went to which we can see from the back garden. They have kindly agreed to take him on a year early and his primary school is keeping him one year extra at the moment so he can avoid the NZ custom of spending two years in an intermediate school.

The weather is finally brightening up and the children get to play occasionally in the garden and get very muddy.

We've just returned from a long hospital visit (3 different appointments for Isaac, getting weighed in paediatric clinic, audiology and dietitian) Heidi has managed to gain 900g in 4 weeks with us, but Isaac unfortunately has lost 150g so he's now 1.8kg less than his highest weight. He also has a moderate hearing loss and it seems his grommets are no longer working so may have fallen out. Combining this with the usual down time I feel after school meetings when I realise how behind other kids Isaac is, and I guess things aren't looking good for Isaac. He doesn't seem to mind though and once again I realise all I have to do is follow my children's' example and I'd deal with life much more easily!