2 am. Party in my room.

I am exhausted.

More than exhausted, I'm completely wiped out. Yet another sleepless night.

Why was I awake?

Did a child have a nightmare?

Was I having a hard time relaxing without Patrick at home?

Was my old friend, Insomnia, returning for an unplanned visit?

No, no, and No. I awoke at about 1:30 am in Justin's bed after having fallen asleep reading Gregor the Overlander to him. Muttering to myself, I tried to quietly roll out of his bed to head to my own when a sudden pain gripped my abdomen. Trying to keep the groaning to a minimum, I stumbled to my bathroom, thinking that the stomach pains were from falling asleep with jeans on before using the restroom.

When this was not the case, and the crampy pains didn't abide, I sorted through my peanut butter brain to figure out what day of the month this was... No... I shouldn't be having cramps right now... What was this?

Instantly, my mind zeroed in on the one possibility that ALWAYS rushes to its front whenever an unexplained stomach issue arises; I must have new tumors on my ovaries. I MUST. That could be the only cause for this tightness that wasn't here yesterday!

Let me tell you, 2 am is NOT the time to be alone with an achy gut, and visions of a painful surgery and recovery, unable to fall back asleep. I continued upon this path of "oh no! I don't want surgery again!" for quite some time. (Surgery and anesthesia freak me out more than I care to admit.) And what if this time, they weren't benign? It really was pitiful...

It was at this time that I heard the nocturnal sounds, so familiar to my household:

thud

creeeeeaakkk....

pit, pit, pit, pit, pit

screeaaakkkk....

"mommmmmeeeee....yawn...."

After this mini-concert reminded me that I needed to get some oil for my squeaky bed, her little feet and hands instantly wrapped themselves around my back, arms, and tummy.

"Yeowch!"

At that moment, I realized, it wasn't just my stomach that hurt from her overexuberant hug; it was my back. And my arms, now that I thought about it...

In fact, my whole body ached!

Hmmmm....

What could it be?!?

Not the ovarian cysts, but something worse?

An unexplained disorder?

And then, an epiphany. A 2 am epiphany that I wasn't riddled with random tumors or weird diseases!

No.

I was sore and achy by my own doing....

That'll teach me for trying to outdo my kids in sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks and arm curls!



No, I didn't do hundreds of each activity. It's just that I haven't done ANY of those exercises in years... I? Am Old.

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