The Morning After

 It took us 14 days home from Skilled Nursing to come to an agreement that my husband would stay in bed in the morning until 7 AM giving me a few precious moments to pull myself together in the peace of the quiet living room before diapering, dressing, and lifting him out of bed. Before facing the blare of the TV morning news that entertains him.

Before facing the inevitable. 

He will quickly fall into a snuggly nap on his special easy chair while I begin my day. While I face a new day exhausted from his inability to sleep the night before. 

Nights are hell around here. 

He can't sleep. He's hot, he's cold. 

11:15 PM Can I turn on the fan?  

12:20 Can I turn off the fan? 

12:45 Can I fix his sheet? 

2:15  Can I fix his sheet?

3:40 Can I fix his sheet? 

His sheets are a constant problem. He can't roll over or reach down below his waist. For a reason neither one of us can determine he compulsively moves his arms to cover his shoulders. Even if he says he hot. This action worms the sheet up the bed into a huge knot. 

Resulting in him being uncovered and unable to sleep. 

Resulting in my being unable to sleep.

I am exhausted. My head hurts. 

But I am solution oriented so at 3 AM I went on Amazon and ordered those clips we used to have to connect our mittens to our coats when we were kids. There are clips at both ends and a piece of elastic in the middle. They will be here tomorrow. I am going to clip the four ends of the sheet to the four corners of the bed. He can wiggle his little heart out. But the sheet will stay put. 

We'll see if it works. 

PS- Yes he has sleep meds. But they make him a zombie the next morning. I've 1/2'd the dose and he's still pretty useless so I have to wait until days no therapist is coming to the house and moving him is harder in the lift. Tonight we both steep!