24 minutes before my normal 3:00 a.m. wide-awake-can’t-go-back-to-sleep time. The microwave door slams shut. Beeps. The door opens and shuts again. Whirs. Beeps. Open…
What in the world is she making? Clatter continues in the kitchen. Reeses barks. The back door opens. Shuts. He’s running around outside barking at whatever it is that called him out there.
I kick the covers off. Why didn’t I turn on the fan last night? Flipping the pillow over to the cool side, I put it on top of my head. Turn to my left side and hug it instead. There goes the microwave again.
Walking to the kitchen, the light is on. There’s a jar of Nutella on the counter. She’s still in her clothes from yesterday. What are you doing?
Stupid question. She’s clearly eating.
“I’m hungry,” she exclaims as she wrestles the plastic seal off a new tub of chocolate ice cream. Her makeup still looks fresh.
You sound like Grandpa warming his coffee when he comes to visit. You will NOT do this again. Be sure to clean up because I don’t want to walk into a messy kitchen when I get up in a few hours.
“I will, I will, I was just a ‘lil hungry,” she reassures me only as teens do.
I go back to bed and summon sleep. Come back, please, I wasn’t done with you yet. Another toss. Slow breathing. No covers except for tucking in my feet.
Bark! Bark-bark!
I must be the only person in the house hearing Reeses asking us to let him in. Waiting doesn’t help. I get up once again. The kitchen is dark. He pads back in but I’m not nice enough to let him upstairs to cuddle with her.
Back to bed. Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Nerds Beget Nerds 
You captured so many frustrations but in a fun, humorous way. Your word choice created strong images and the variety in sentence length added to the discomfort of waking up in the middle of the night and not falling back to sleep.
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So frustrating since I have a hard time sleeping through the night on any given day. I was in a sweet slumber until that microwave door slammed.
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You sound nicer than I would be if I was woken up at that time. Nice job capturing that thoughts and small actions that show the scene.
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Thanks, I did my best to stay calm. I’ve had instances of having to be at work with too-early wake up times and I wasn’t having it today. I almost wrote about it on the spot, but decided to give sleep another chance.
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Oof, we feel every distraction/disruption with you. The sounds and details do create a bit of mystery – who is using the microwave at 2:30am?! We read on to find out! Very engaging from beginning to end.
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I knew exactly who it was, but I couldn’t figure out what need to be put in the microwave. Nutella. I didn’t even bother to ask why.
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Oh, to be a parent of a teenager, Nutella and ice cream at 2:30 a.m. (I fear my son was often just going to sleep at that time in high school…yikes!) The “cool side” of the pillow sounds heavenly. I hope the reminder to breathe brought you a return to sleep!
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When you take a “nap” after school at 6:30 p.m., breakfast is at 2:30 a.m., lol! Silly teen.
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I like how I can feel your frustration (which you heroically keep in check) along with the ridiculousness of the situation. TEENS!
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Thanks, it took every ounce of patience (and I don’t have much) to keep from imploding.
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I felt this so much! “Come back, please, I wasn’t done with you yet.” I am up in the middle of the night a lot for various reasons and I often have this same thought! Hope you get a better night’s sleep tonight!
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I’m so relieved I was able to get back to sleep, but it took a while.
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I know exactly what you mean about the effort to get back to sleep after some sound wakes you up. Glad you managed to eventually! Great description of your conversation with your daughter.
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