Elusive Sweet Sleep

I have the night owl gene in me, and it is hard to go to bed early. Even at a time when sleep is like gold. Many a night I look up from some little project or book and the clock is rounding midnight- and then I get this pit in my stomach. I should have gone to bed hours ago is what I am thinking....Because you just never know what kind of sleep you will get in the next 7 hours.

Some nights would have the stranger in the grocery store who asks me "is she sleeping through the night?" tut-tutting in dismay. Other nights when she wakes me up only once to nurse have a sweetness about them (in a delirious sort of way). By the glow of the pink nightlight I have a rare quiet moment to appreciate this miracle that is my daughter. I soothe her back to sleep with a hushed voice after nursing and a diaper change. It is these nights of more sleep that I often stay awake to just stare at her for a moment or two more before I click off the light.