I've been a military spouse for over 16 years now and I feel like I'm standing before a 'self-help' group when I say, "Hi, I'm GBear and I'm a TDY insomniac."
One of the worst things for me when Papa Bear goes TDY is that I just can't sleep. I hear every noise, I think of a million things to do, I ponder the schedule/conflicts/myriad of bi-locating needed the next day! I feel like Michael J. Fox in "Growing Pains" when he just couldn't sleep and would lie in bed telling himself, "I'm asleep now. I'm sleeping! Ahhh, feels so good to be falling asleep!" and then got up in frustration saying, "I'm AWAKE!".
Any suggestions? It's not that bad - it's not like he's not gone for 10 months this time or a year and a half deployment. It's just a week. I can do without a good night's sleep for that long, but my kids don't get a well rested and 'chipper' mom!
I tried to go to sleep, I did! But Goober (7) wanted to camp out in my room with dad gone and who'd have thought one so young could snore so loudly (why did we get his tonsils out again?), the neighbor's dog was barking fiercely and I had to wonder at what, my other son kept tossing and turning in his bed across the way (reminding me that he really needs a new, quieter bed), tried to read before turning off the light to make my mind more relaxed and wipe away the stress of the day (does that really ever work?) - all to no avail!
Last night, I got their school supply lists out and looked over what we have in our stock pile, ran through the recycling bin at 1am to make sure I hadn't inadvertently thrown away my son's school yearbook (OK, so retrieving it from the curb may have shown clear signs that this week's insomnia is already catching up to my ability to think clearly), I jotted down ALL three kids schedule for the next few months on the big Dry Erase board I just got (why?, because I like to start praying now that I suddenly get the ability to tri-locate on demand!!! Seeing the vast need to be in three places at once just made the sleep come a bit easier - not!), answered emails and got started on the morning's correspondence, organized my office space where the kid's school stuff is kept, unloaded the dishwasher, folded laundry, worked a TriCare issue (that should have put me to sleep and given me nightmares!) wrote some letters and I even organized the magazine pile that keeps threatening to overrun the living room...... At least I was productive until I finally wore myself out at O-dark-wake-up-time!
Am I the only one? Are there others out there who find it tough to get to sleep when their spouse is gone TDY/deployment? What do you do for this? Warm milk?
