Sleep Keeps Me Awake

I'm here. I'm here. Just a little later than usual.

Last night was a rough one. No, there was no drinking or carousing. Quite the opposite: it was a quiet night at home with chinese take-out (the food, not the people) and I think I was in bed by 22:30. Exciting, huh?

Spin and workout and a long-feeling work week kind of did me in, not that I'm that exciting of a guy anyway when it comes to weekend nightlife.

And then there are changes to our bedtime behaviour too. No - not that. Grow up.

I think last night's/this morning's restlessness started with a dream. My dreams were ALL over the place - more so than usual. No James Franco this time, but my first one, which I remember nothing made me wake up in an unsettled state. One where not only could I not fall back asleep, I didn't want to either. I did not want to go back to there.......wherever "there" was.

Then I just had odd dreams, when I did go back to there.

In between said dreams was one little lonely cat. She has never been prone to visiting me in bed for pets, but last night she was very very needy. While I shouldn't reward her behaviour for keeping me awake (or was it I keeping her awake?), I can't help but pet her and try to settle her down.

...and she did settle down, like 4-5 times during the night, each with a corresponding wake-up call for me. Yayyyy.

But what I do love about Sophie is how she settles in - either at night or just when sitting next to us in a chair - and I think I have mentioned this in much earlier posts about her........she likes to put her cat butt up to the side of my chest, or sometimes at my hip.

I have long ago made assumptions about why she does this. She likes to feel the heartbeat of one of us. Whether it was her mom's or the fact that in her rescue cage, she slept on top of her brothers and sisters and always had that warmth and a heartbeat she could feel. She likes that closeness.

The hip one, I don't have quite figured out, but I suspect that is a warmth thing. As winter approaches, I will find her more on top of me while sitting in a chair (not so much in the hot hot summer months) and when I sleep - between my legs. That was fine when she was a 4lb kitten, but she's almost three times that size now.

So oddly enough, I'm up late, but not due to sleep. I just lay up on bed snuggling with a girl who is a little alone and figuring out how to move forward with a new routine. We just have to figure out what that means for all of us.

It's gonna be a long day for a bike ride with little zzzzzzs.



Song by: Michelle Shocked