Goodnight, sleep tight...

Nighttime has been interesting here. We love to camp by running water, especially for it’s soothing effects at night. All you here is the rushing water and occasionally a deer or bear crashing through your camp. (Last year it was a raccoon who opened our latched ice chest and we heard crunching and licking…..we went out early in the morning to find our eggs half eaten along with some other items thrown around.)

We had a site by a stream the first night, then moved up where Rick’s site was, up by the fishing lake. Fishing, fishing, fishing. Here it is beautiful, aspens and spruce trees everywhere at the top of a mountain, over 10,000 ft elevation. There is a breeze during the day and the views are wonderful. But at night it is so quiet, you can’t even imagine the stillness.

The first night here, I heard my ears ringing and that kind of ocean sound echoing in my head as I tried to sleep. The only things I would hear where my family’s breathing patterns- which is only irritating when you’re trying to sleep. I heard an S shaped hook clinking against the trailer post, husband breathing, my own nose whistling….arg! So I turned on my flashlight and rooted around in my makeup bag for one very used, old earplug. Heaven! I put it in one ear and laid my other ear on my pillow and went to sleep soundly.

Oh, and we have a signal at night to roll over when someone is snoring. One of the girls will give the trailer a good shake. When you feel the trailer shake, it’s time to lay on your side. Ha!

Our 8 year old, Maggie, is sleeping next to Bethany, 15 and Emma, 13. The first two nights she cried, whimpered and struggled in her sleep and scootched around until she was uncovered and lying horizontally across the top of the bed. The third night I put an extra seat cushion to fill in the gaps of her ‘mattress’ (she is sleeping where you put the table down and use seat cushions to make a mattress) and she slept just fine, much to the relief of her sisters.

Now when she wakes up at night and can’t see anything (it is pitch black here at night, no moon as it goes down early here) Bethany will just reach over and hold her hand and she goes back to sleep.

So you can see how getting out of normal routine and lifestyle can also help develop coping skills and problem solving. =)