Ask any parent of small children what they miss the most about life before children, and I’ll guarantee you that most will say they miss sleeping in. It’s funny how your definition of sleeping in changes after having children. Sleeping in until 9:30 a.m. or 10 a.m. was what I considered sleeping in before I had children. Now three kids later, I count my blessings if I don’t have to rise and shine before 7:30 a.m.

My early mornings are mostly due to my oldest son, Eli. I’ve dubbed him my little rooster. The nickname is quite fitting not only because he’s redhead like a rooster, but he also has the internal alarm clock of a rooster. This child, no matter when you put him to bed, will more than likely be up before sunrise. Also like a rooster, he thinks it’s his job to give everyone else in the house a wake up call.

Most mornings I arise to lights cutting on and off, slamming doors and toy cars clambering around in plastic buckets as Eli’s feet pound down the stairs. My husband and I have tried explaining to him the importance of being quiet. Apparently, that’s a foreign concept to a 3 year old. It goes in one ear and out the other.

Just recently my little rooster has really been pulling a number of us. A couple of times a week Eli might wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Since I’m a light sleeper, it doesn’t take much to stir me from a peaceful slumber. Usually I find him playing with his cars or blocks, and some or all of the lights are on upstairs. Oh, how I miss for the days when he was sleeping in a crib and had no way out!

For now, I daydream about nights of uninterrupted sleep and the old school sleeping in. You know the kind of deep sleep in which you drool all over your pillow. Yes, that’s what I long for these days.

There’s one thing I can promise you. When Eli becomes a teenager and wants to sleep in until noon, I’ll have no problem dragging his bum out of bed. It will be sweet payback for the predawn wake up calls I’m enduring right now.

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