If my kid sneezes in Albuquerque, I'll hear it

For the past two and a half weeks my husband has been fighting a cough. Since neither of us were getting much sleep because of it, the last several nights he has been taking some medicine to help. And by medicine I mean the drug that puts you slightly above comatose state.

It has been working fairly well, most nights which poses another problem - waking up. But not just him, me too. Although I have not been taking any medicine to sleep I still need my drugged up hubby to wake me up. Because I can not seem to wake up to the alarm clock.

I won't try to impress you or annoy you with the hour in which I wake up in the morning. I am sure it may cause some of you to roll your eyes. Suffice to say it's early for me but it also allows me to get some stuff done before kids wake up - namely exercise.

The other morning my plans were thwarted however because by the time I actually woke up - well when my husband woke me up - the alarm had been going off for 35 minutes.

How does that happen? How could I not have heard the radio blaring for more than a half hour? I guess I was tired.

My family used to joke growing up that I could sleep through World War III, and it some cases they would be right. I can sleep through thunderstorms and cars zooming by. I used to be able to sleep through ANYTHING, and it still holds true with all but one thing - kid noises.

Anything kind of noise my little munchkins make in the night - I hear it. I hear coughs, sneezes, cries, whimpers - you name it. I am sure this is some sort of biological thing that a moms get after having a kid. It makes perfect sense. They cry so much when they are little you become like Pavlov's Dog - any time you hear their cry you jump into action. Whether it's 9 a.m., 3 p.m. or 2 a.m.

Many moms can pick their child's cry out of a line-up.

It's a double-edged sword, this being able to hear your child in the middle of the night. It is good to be able to help them when they are sick (and sometimes avoid messy clean-ups, if you know what I mean), but it also can seriously mess with your ability to sleep.

My son is fighting a cough as well and the other night he coughed and coughed all night - even with medicine in him. And I woke up with every attack. There was nothing really I could do for him. He never really woke up either, just coughing in his dreams. But I did. I even went in his room, woke him up and gave him something to drink to see if that would help him stop coughing (and me to sleep). It didn't. How is it I can hear my four-year-old coughing in the next room at 3:30 a.m. but I can't hear Katy Perry blaring next to my head?

What I find the most humorous my super strength "mom ears" is that my husband does not have it. He CAN sleep through the kids coughing and sneezing etc. What he can't sleep through is the alarm clock, (except when he takes NyQuil).

I guess it's a good thing we found each other.

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