Sleeping Alone

Ian was out of town all last week. It's not the first time that he's been away for work. We've been apart 3 other times. But this time felt different. After thirty-some years of sleeping alone, eleven months of marriage has made me accustomed to having someone else next to me during the night. I had a hard time sleeping with him gone. I think Ian's used to it too. Sometimes, when I return to bed from my pregnancy-induced, middle-of-the-night bathroom breaks, I find him searching my usual sleeping space in his sleep. As soon as he feels me again, he relaxes and goes back into heavy-breathing REM sleep.

Now the interesting thing about sleeping alone again is that it resolves some of the differences of opinion we sometimes have over night-time antics. See, every morning we wake up with the comforter hanging over my side of the bed and barely covering his side of the bed. He thinks I'm a blanket hog...and I suppose that makes logical sense. My theory is that it's actually his fault. Ian likes to start out the night with his feet hanging out from the covers. So he pushes the comforter over to my side a bit. Now this is a heavy down comforter so just the weight of it causes drift. I don't think I'm actually pulling it to my side. I realize that this doesn't sound logical, but in my week alone, I carefully centered the comforter before going to sleep every night and woke up with it in the exact same position. So I think my theory proves true.

Another issue possibly resolved. I wrote about couvade in my last post. During this pregnancy, Ian has developed sympathy weight gain and sympathy itching. But where I've become a lighter sleeper, he's started snoring and sleeping heavier. I was a bit bummed that he didn't develop sympathy insomnia also. But something interesting happened last week. I was awakened twice to the sound of snoring. That's when I usually have to wake myself all the way up to tell Ian to turn over. But since Ian wasn't there, I really couldn't blame him. Frankly, I find this quite disturbing. I've never been told that I snore - and I've shared a bedroom with two other women over the past 4 years. Cal and Clee never complained. This must be new. So now I'm wondering about couvade again. Might it work in reverse? Am I experiencing sympathetic snoring in response to Ian? Must be so. I mean...me? snore? It must be Ian's fault. Or I'm having to compensate for sleeping alone.

Clarice