Sleep Aid - a Kool Aid

I may have posted about this before. If so, I apologize. But I'm pretty sure that, if I did, it was only in passing.

I am tired. Not as tired as Nathan's first three months, when I was living in a haze and getting to the store took a week's worth of planning and a shot of adrenaline. But these days Nathan is getting up four or five times a night. At first I blamed the heat, then the fact that it was too cool in their room... but now I just think he's getting used to me helpinghim back to sleep. At some point I must take a stand and let him cry a little, let him deal so we can get through this part... but at 2am I always think I'd rather get him to fall back asleep FASTER instead of letting him learn anything because, quite frankly, I am too tired to lie there and listen to him scream. And the thought of him waking up Nick terrifies me.

When one is sleep deprived, there is nothing more irritating than sleep aid advertisements. And let me tell you , there are a lot of sleep aids out there. Lunesta, Rozerem, Ambien, not to mention several over-the-counter sleep aids, like Tylonol PM, Advil PM, and my personal favorite from way back when, Valerian Root Tea. (It smells like the garbage, but it always put me right to sleep.) The things is, with all these sleep aids, the advertising people speak as though the ONLY THING keeping you awake, the ONLY thing, is tension or some other thing that CAN be cured with a drug.

Personally, unless the Advil PM people are going to come over and get up with my kid five times a night, they aren't going to be doing me any good. Or how about this! Those people having trouble sleeping? The ones we see on TV wandering and looking at the clock and then out the window and sighing... why don't THEY come over and take care of my kids for a couple of days? I could sleep for a couple of days, and I promise them they will be exhausted and ready to sleep after 48 hours. They won't need a perscription, only references and an FBI background check.

Besides, I happen to know that taking sleep aids like those listed above are not good for you. Anyone can become addicted to them, making insomnia worse. And I don't think the sleep you get with them is as restful as the sleep you would get otherwise. Unless there is a real reason, they should be avoided.

But still, each time I hear a commercial, see images of people sleeping peacefully, and that silly butterfly, I can't help wanting to swallow these pills by the fistfull. YES! I want to shout. YES! I AM TIRED!