Schedule schmedule!

So I admit I'm not a big rules kind of gal; we tend more often than not to go with the flow. I actually really don't care most nights if the kids don't go to bed until 10pm, so long as they aren't driving me crazy! Mark has recently decided (as in a couple of nights ago, bless his little heart but he gets on these, "I'm going to make my family perfect" kicks every once in awhile) that the kids should be IN bed at 8:30. This includes all of the kids except the baby. His theory is they should be in bed earlier now that we're gearing up for school. Personally I think he spends entirely too much time conversing with his coworkers about their public-schooled kids. *My* theory is that I don't really want everyone (including me!) getting up at the crack of dawn. Maybe in a perfect world this would be great; little Henry and Suzy brush their teeth, say their prayers, and snuggle down into their beds at 8:30 while Ma and Pa dawn their pj's and have a little nightcap, and climb into their bed at 9pm as they blow out the old oil lamp. Everyone wakes at 6am to a big hearty breakfast and the kids are off to school, Pa is off to work, and Ma starts the washing.

The reality of it is that the kids may be getting to bed earlier, but I am not! Regardless of when everyone else goes to bed, I'm not getting there until Hobie is off to dreamland. Here lately that's been around midnight. Even when he miraculously falls asleep for the night at around 10pm, I'm up until midnight trying to get everything done that I didn't get to during the day. And then he's up anywhere from two to five times a night to nurse - it's the only time he doesn't seem to spit everything right back up - and he's started to protest the close confines of co-sleeping in our bed so he starts squirming and digging his toes in my c-section scar. I wind up having to get back up and put him back in his crib, only to re-start the process in two hours. I am not a heavy sleeper and it takes me awhile to wind down once I'm in bed, so by the time 6am rolls around and all of the other kids are awake and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I've had about 3 hours of fractured sleep and am ready to eat whatever little squirrel decides to come ask me some nutty question as I'm desperately wishing the sun would go away and those stupid birds outside would drop dead.

Why oh why did I marry a morning person??