I care for my grandmother. She’s 88. She broke her hip in 2000 but now seems to be back to normal. She’s got some slight short term dementia but nothing serious. But she does need someone to watch her or at least be around most of the time. Which is where I fit in.
Before I came here I could sleep through anything. I was a log, a petrified log. But not now. Oh how my sleep has changed. Now the slightest bump or thump and I’m fully awake and off to check what happened. 95% of the time it’s a book or a cup. But yesterday it took a turn for the worse.
Yesterday I was sound asleep when it happened. I was immediately fully awake due to the sound of water drizzling out of the faucet. She does that from time to time, forgets to turn it all the way off. I forced myself up to check what was wrong but it wasn’t water drizzling.
Oh no.
It was scrabble tiles. My grandmother was picking up scrabble tiles 2 rooms away off the carpeted floor and putting them in the bag. The jiggling of scrabble tiles in a bag two walls away woke me up!!! Dammit! Oh will I ever get my log like status back? You people who have children you know this right? Am I doomed as doomed can be?
Oh woe is me.
Pity me.
In a similar but completely unrelated vein…
I’ve always been a fairly light sleeper. In November, though, Bitz the Wonder Mutt came to live with me. Bitz is half Lab/half Rott and among the world’s most mellow 3 YO dogs.
While not aggressive in the least, she is very alert and protective. I think it’s the perfect combination for a “guard” dog: Let me know something’s going on and let ME deal with it while the dog stands by for backup.
However, if she so much as moves across the bedroom in the middle of the night, I wake up. If she sits up and wags her tail, the sound of her tail swishing on the floor wakes me up. If she rolls over and her tags jingle, I wake up.
That makes for some really interesting sleep patterns on those rare nights when she’s antsy and wandering around.
On the whole, I don’t think it’s a bad thing for either of us. It is, however, definitely a change. I can’t figure out how people who have children get any sleep whatsoever until the kids move out of the house.
I’ve been there.
Osiris, here’s hope that you do manage to get more than four hours sleep at a time. Caregivers are blessed but, oh man th’ hours are crazy …
And Osiris, its EXACTLY the same when you have kids. At least until they are about five years old and are sleeping through the night, then I’ve found my body starts to relax and I can sleep better.
But the nights when they aren’t feeling well just set you back to your light sleeping patterns.
In short, I sympathise.
It’s good to see it’s not permanent. Otherwise when I get to be her age I shall be a very grumpy old man.