When Ava was first born, Lindsay and I made the decision for Lindsay to be a stay-at-home mom. Of course this meant we'd have to find a way to make ends meet with one salary rather than two.
We were committed and took the plunge.
Every night, for close to nine months, I would wake up at 3am, without fail--no alarm clock--just woke up. I would find my way downstairs to the basement office. I'd wake the computer and open up our budgeting program. I would crunch numbers, create and delete categories, move budgeted money around, research ways to save a buck, etc. Each night I got closer to creating a scenario that would allow us to operate comfortably on my one teacher's salary.
Once the budget was in place and proved its worth, I no longer had to wake up at 3am. Of course, being a habit now I still occassionaly woke up at 3am...but over time that dissipated.
Over the next few years we had two more children, Henry and Ella. The nights once again became interrupted. But it was temporary. Nighttime feeding, changing, and comforting soon became less and less as the kids grew older.
We decided we would have no more kids after three and thought, quite naturally, that our sleeping life would resume to a typical night's sleep.
Enter SMA.
The diagnosis of SMA for Ella brought with it much. One aspect that we never dreamed of was how it would affect our sleep. Ella can't turn herself at night. She naturally relies on Lindsay and me to turn her. We lovingly oblige. Sometimes it's twice a night, sometimes six times...we never really know. We've gotten used to the up and down throughout the night...it is exhausting though.
Lately, however, there's been a change. Ella has been experiencing significant knee pain. Our suspicions lie with her hip surgery in that the thigh muscles may have tightened up during the recovery time and have been causing pain in the knee area. We have entertained the idea that it may be "restless leg syndrome" which has been linked with major surgery in the hip region. We are on the path to finding out which it is or if it has a different origin...nonetheless it keeps her up during the night in discomfort...and in turn, keeps us up as well.
Throughout the night we are turning her, massaging her legs, applying a heating pad (which means we have to stay up in the room with her while it's on), and taking care of the usual routines with her machines and, well...sleepless in Naperville is all I can say.
What seems strangely funny to me though is that almost without fail...usually every night...right around 3am...it all stops and she falls deep asleep.
What is it about 3am?
