In the wee small hours of the morning

Another morning up at 4 am, then unable to fall back to sleep, despite feeling physically exhausted. How can I turn off my brain in the mornings?

Maybe I'm getting in my own way - I try really hard to separate work from home (don't have a Blackberry, don't check emails online or voicemail at night, don't bring work home) and maybe by attempting to bury it I'm just making it bubble up uncontrollably when my brain is more tired. Maybe if I did checked email and voicemail before I went to sleep, I'd feel like I was on top of things. But I don't think so - in the past, I've done that, only to find a new annoying email about some simple thing I had to do, but couldn't do until I got to the office, and yet it would eat away at me until I had the chance to do it. I decided long ago that almost anything could wait, and if it were a real emergency someone would call me directly at home.

My new routine is that on the ghastly early mornings when I'm not going to the gym (today is a rest day), I will use the hours to write (or at least spend time on my online writing class - which, by the way, is fabulous, a million times better than the one I ditched. Phew.)


The babies, in photos taken a week ago (already!) when they were four days old. They are not much bigger than fat mosquitoes.