The longest day with no beginning

Ah, the end of daylight savings time. I’m not sure which I hate more, the end—when all the world grows dark for another six weeks—or the beginning—when I have to wrestle kids to bed because it’s still light outside. Nevertheless, the end/beginning of daylight savings means readjusting bedtime rituals and having low expectations on morning wakeup times.

But this morning, or better yet, last night brought some surprises. Planning ahead as I usually do, we let the kids take a little less nap and stay up extra late to compensate for the extra hour of sleep. This was to ensure that they didn’t get up at 5 a.m.

Alex put himself to bed at 8:30 or so claiming he was tired. (Note: We were spending the night at Grandma’s house last night in Richmond.) So after a full day of grandparents, complete with fishing other activities, he was well beyond tired. At 10 p.m., I climbed into the bed next to Alex. I heard him wiggle, cough, sneeze, snore, breathe, sigh, yawn and then start all over again. I lay there realizing he wasn’t really asleep.

With my own thoughts racing, I also lay there for a good while and each time I started to drift off, I would hear wiggle, cough, sneeze, snore, breathe, sigh, yawn occasionally with a kick from the trundle bed below. At midnight, Alex sits up with snuffy nose and asks to go to the bathroom. I lead him to the bathroom and finally cajole him into taking some Children’s Sudafed. His response: Can I have a treat? I knew at that moment, this was not a sleepy kid.

For two more hours, I listen to the same. At one point he was whimpering because he said his thumb was tired of him sucking on it. My response: Go to sleep and it won’t be tired anymore. Finally, at 2:30 a.m. I awakened my husband who was sleeping with my daughter in the next room and asked to switch. I finally fell asleep, kind of, around 4 a.m. At 5 a.m. I hear Alex sneezing and coughing in the hallway. He was ready to start the day apparently. What day? My day turned into night and now it was almost day again. And so began my first day of standard time, or was it yesterday or today? Who knows.

After a very long ride home to Reston and brief nap from everyone, my afternoon of picking up the pieces of the longest day ever—with no beginning—began with Anna puking last night’s spaghetti’s sauce all over my tan loveseat. I nearly passed out when the clock showed only 3:30 p.m.