Sleep Deprived and Yet...

My boys, the Man I Married and I are shacking up with my parents for the time being since we are getting some woodwork done at our place. There, my boys sleep in their room, in a bunk bed. Here, the four of us sleep together on a huge wrought iron bed...and I love it, as do the three 'men' in my life.

The MIM and I each grab a little body and curl ourselves around it for the night. Blissful, but not perfect, because we all want more, don't we? So, we each stretch out an arm so that we can rest our hand upon the sleepy little head that is snuggled into the other parent's chest. Uncomfortable, did I hear you say? You bet! But the MIM and I go to sleep with a smile upon our lips, a baby close to heart and a warmth that can't be described...no matter how hard I try.

So, this has been the scenario for the past ten days. Last night was no different, except that the EO seems to have caught a bug and to our absolute horror, at two in the morning, started throwing up in his sleep! The MIM and I immediately sprung to action, and the YO woke up in the process. Instead of wailing and screaming, he took one look at his beloved brother's face, realised the state he was in and was full of concern. He started repeating over and over again, just in case his father and I missed the fact, "Dada bomi koye diyechey!" (Dada's thrown up!) We took the EO to the bathroom, cleaned him up, changed the bedsheets and lay down, all four of us wide awake and in a very chatty mood.

Now I've been working overtime the last few nights, trying to get a couple of articles out of the way, waking up at 6.30 am everyday to get the EO ready for school, notwithstanding. And the MIM had to be up at 5.30 am because of a sudden trip to Puri. We had obviously decided not to send the EO to school, but we both needed the sleep. Desperately! But there was something so gratifying and wonderful about the four of us being awake together at the ungodly hour of 2am till 3.30 am. The YO dozed off twice in between, but woke up again to be a part of the family bonding time. It was a pleasure beyond compare, to have an 'intense' chat with the EO about school, superheroes, fast cars and the like, while the YO decided to entertain himself by rolling over each and every one of us, occasionaly stopping to flash us his pearly whites and emit a giggle of joy.

The MIM managed two hours of sleep before stumbling out of the house, red-eyed and bleary. I managed to crawl out of bed long enough to make him a cup oftea, before crawling back inbetween my two babies. Luckily Maa-Janoni and the ayah whisked them out of the room as soon as they woke up so that I could get a few more hours of shut-eye.

I'm awake now, but cranky, crabby and so sleep deprived my eyeballs hurt. And yet, when I listen hard enough, I can actually hear my heart humming.