Adjusting to the time change has been a challenge.  I thought we’d easily slip into life here since the rhythm of life has switched from day to night because of Ramadan.  Simply put, we moved from the same time zone to the same time zone.  However, the sun doesn’t rest during the fast and our bedrooms are flooded with light early in the morning.  We kept Charlie and Lola up late in Ramadan style, finally putting them to bed at around 2:30 a.m.  The Mister and I retired at around 3:30 a.m.  Just as sleep was tugging heavily on my eyelashes, Lola woke up crying.  Then again, around 5 a.m, Lola cried out in fear.  I got her settled, and drifted back to sleep only to be awoken by the darling womb-miracles at 6:30.  How is it that they had 4 hours of sleep and still managed to run around the house and garden with full energy output?  I folded one blanket and I was spent.  

The next night, I thought maybe the seeming contradiction of “children will sleep longer if you put them to bed early” would be a useful strategy.  The more you sleep, the more you’ll sleep.  Lola was falling asleep by 10 p.m, so rather than forcing her to stay up and prolonging her exhaustion, I put her to bed.  I, however, didn’t apply the same wisdom to myself.  Instead, I chose to get some shut-eye at 1 a.m.  The late hour wouldn’t matter, would it?  No, because my darling angel was going to sleep to a decent time.  Oh, my arrogance, how you like to lead me on so that I will fall on my face.  Lola woke up ready to face the day at 4:30 a.m.  I tried the old trick of “read quietly” hoping to lull her back to sleep and when that didn’t work, I filled her tummy up with some warm oatmeal.  A full tummy makes sleep come easier, doesn’t it?  Not for Lola.  Nor does melatonin.  After 2 pills, she was still wide awake.   

Well, kiddlettes, it’s war.  And I’m going to win.  And I did. 

Last night, we armed ourselves with more melatonin (a natural way to induce sleep since it’s a hormone that your body naturally releases to draw us into the state of sleep.  Sweet sweet sleep).  Lola went to sleep at 2 a.m. and woke up at 10:30 a.m!  The great miracle is that we didn’t hear from her at all during the night.  I think she got used to having someone in the room with her, either Charlie or us, as our sleeping situations were usually shared throughout the summer.  Now that we are back home, Lola is sleeping in her own room again.  I think she was waking up in the middle of the night because of normal jet lag but then was further off-put by being alone.  If there is one form of torture that is extremely effective on Lola, it’s isolation.  She can’t stand to be alone.  But last night, I think we kicked it. 

I, however, couldn’t get to sleep until 6 a.m.  It might have had something to do with the 5 hour nap I had in the afternoon and the two cups of tea that I drank at 10:30 p.m.  Oh, sweet tea!  How you seduce me.

Now it’s time to wage war on myself.  Where are those pills?