Pain in the Neck

Yesterday, I woke up and realized that I had been sleeping funny.  I felt like I had a kink in my neck, and it was painful to move. 

I didn't get much done yesterday because it was hard to look down or sideways.  I managed to do the dishes, straighten up the house a bit, and do laundry, but that was about it.  I felt kind of awful. 

The vet came yesterday to give Dakota her yearly check-up.  She told me that my dog is in a lot of pain.  She's old, and her back legs sometimes shake.  I chalked it up to weakness, but she told me that was actually a sign of pain.  For as much pain as the doctor thinks she's in, she is awfully patient with the baby falling on her.  She's an excellent dog, and we're going to do what we can.

Grig came home shortly after the vet left, and he was very nice and heated a cloth for my neck.  By the time bed came around I was feeling better. 

Kevin wasn't sleeping well last night, so I didn't sleep well.  However, I was feeling better until at some point this morning, around 2:30 a.m., he dropped onto my chest.  It startled me and I jerked.  Pain shot through my neck and I gave a cry.  Grig quickly woke up and asked if everything was okay.  I told him what had happened, and I think we both dropped back to sleep after that. 

However, twenty minutes later, I was startled to consciousness by the feeling of pain in my neck growing.  The pressure was pretty painful and I started trying to roll onto my side to get off of it.  The only problem was....I couldn't move.  My labored breathing woke Grig up again, and he helped me sit up.  Shortly afterward I started to feel better, but he was concerned.  He told me maybe he should take the day off. 

I told him I was fine and we didn't have time for me to be incapacitated.  I was going to visit my parents today and watch my little brother perform in Sound of Music.  I told him I would be fine.  He didn't look very convinced.  However, after a warm towel on my neck and a relaxing bath, I do feel much better now. 

He still wants me to go to the chiropractor, but we'll see how I feel later.  I don't have much time today before I leave, so I only want to go if I absolutely need to.

I'm a bit stubborn at times, but I really am feeling better. 

Sometimes I exasperate my husband.  Whoops.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...Actually Isn't So Bad

Me, as a night-owl.

 Anyone who has ever lived with me can tell you, I'm not really a morning person.

When I was a kid, my siblings never wanted to be the one to come wake me up.  If someone disturbed my sleep (unless it was Dad or Mom) I was wrath unleashed!  I come up swinging, something I'm not very proud of.  Really, no one should have had to wake me up.  I should have been able to do it on my own.  The problem is that when I do sleep, I'm a very deep sleeper.

I've never really needed that much sleep.  When I was a baby, my parents would tell me stories about how I would only take one nap a day, and a very short, trying nap at that.  My mom likes to tell me about how she would walk around for over an hour trying to get me to fall asleep.  Finally, I would drift off.  She would try to lay me down, and I would wake up re-energized!  My short nap was sufficient.  At least I slept well at night.

As I grew older, it was literally impossible for me to over-sleep.  I remember coming upstairs crying on numerous occasions because I had been laying in bed for hours and I just couldn't fall alseep.  That, along with several other factors, convinced me that it was better to just stay up reading.  I began to get less sleep, and then falling asleep became much easier.  I also became more of a night-owl.  It only got worse in college.

In my first two years of college, I averaged four hours of sleep a night.  Crazy, huh?  That means sometimes I got around two and sometimes around six.  I actually did quite well on that, except for the occasional class that I slept through.

During my mission, I got on a better schedule.  As a missionary, you are required to go to bed at 10:30 p.m. and wake up at 6:30 a.m.  I would go to bed, but I couldn't always fall asleep.  Sometimes I'd lay there for a few hours before I'd drift off.  Even exhausted from working all day, sleep sometimes is a challenge.

When I finished my mission, I got right back to my old sleep schedule.  In college for a while, I was the last one to sleep and the first one awake.  My attempts to help myself go to sleep earlier included always having a 7:45 a.m. class.  That way, I would usually go to bed at least by 2:00 a.m.

With my first year of marriage, things were slightly better.  Unfortunately, Grig is also a night-owl, and often we would stay up late together.  Sometimes, on a really bad night, we would fall asleep around 4:00 a.m.  However, we tried to set goals to go bed by midnight.

After we had Kevin, we did begin to go to bed around midnight.  Kevin however, also seems to require a little less sleep than most babies (but not as little as me, thank goodness).  He's always been a good night sleeper, but he would stay up until midnight with us,and then wake up around 8:30.  It worked for a while.

Then, Grig got a new job.  His job begins at either 4 or 5:00 in the morning.  That means I have to wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. in order to make him breakfast.  (This is an entirely voluntary thing.  Grig has told me on numerous occasions that I don't actually have to do that, but I like being able to see him in the morning, and it helps him get to work on time if I help make breakfast and lunch.) 

We are now going to bed anytime from 8-9:30.  That's the earliest I've ever gone to bed in my life.  We consistently go to bed early and wake up early.  Strangely, I'm beginning to realize that I like it.

All my life, I thought people were crazy for getting up this early.  Right now, it's 4:27 a.m. and I'm blogging.  Kevin is asleep and I'm all alone.  It's quiet outside and even the crickets are sleeping.  I have time to think and relax before the day begins.

Occasionally, I go back to bed after Grig leaves, but usually I try to stay up and I'm finding that I enjoy waking up early more each morning.  Sometimes on weekends, when Grig doesn't have work, he and I revert to our old habits.

However, we are both finding that Early to Bed and Early to Rise really isn't such a bad thing after all.

Go figure.