Wee hours

Have you ever heard the term, "wee hours of the night"? I had and never thought much about it. Now I am certain of the origin; it refers to the wee people that are up at that time. This past Friday night, Mark and I were tired after a long week of working and having some friends over for dinner that evening. We have all been recovering from some kind of cold/flu/cough thing that's been going around, so after finally getting Carter down for bed an hour past his bed time, we went to bed ourselves, looking forward to a good night's rest.

In my pregnant state, I predictably woke up and had to go to the bathroom at about 12:15 am. I returned to bed and waited for sleep to come. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. Carter woke up 20 minutes later and claimed he had to go potty. This happened three more times over the next hour or so, and then he needed milk. Then he just plain couldn't sleep. Each time we heard his little voice at the door, Mark and I would sigh the sigh that only sleep-needing parents can do. We took turns turning him around and putting him back in bed. No one slept through the whole process.

Finally at 4:30, Mark and I were feeling out of solutions with no end in sight. Carter wasn't upset or crying, he just couldn't sleep, so Mark decided we may as well just get up. We all traipsed into the kitchen, and Mark made blueberry pancakes while Carter and I played trains. I wondered what our neighbors would think,if they looked out the window in the middle of the night and saw our little family's activities. As odd as we would have appeared, I bet it would be a happy sight to see the three of us merrily making the most of our circumstances.

We finally could see Carter was winding down at about 6am, so we went through the bedtime routine again, and then Mark and I crawled back into our now-cooled sheets. Much to our dismay, Carter woke up again for the day shortly before 8:00, but we knew there was no way we'd get him to go back to bed again. We accepted that we had a sleepless two-year-old and got up to proceed with our day.

We experienced the "wee hours of the night" in their full glory. It's the wee ones and their parents that are awake during those hours. I bet you could open a business based on that concept. I'm picturing breakfast foods, slides and swings for the little ones, and cots for the parents. Hours: 7 nights a week, 10pm to 6 am. I may be onto something . . .