Terrible Sleepers

My kids are terrible sleepers. It kinda feels good to see that in black and white. I'm forced to accept it- it makes it like, FACT. They wake during the night and can't get back to sleep and they wake in the morning at an ungodly hour. JUST LIKE ME. It's so strange how this all works...
I am incredibly sleep deprived and completely exhausted, yet it takes me hours to fall asleep some nights. When I am woken a few hours later by Sam's crying or Eva's "Mama!", it takes me hours to fall asleep again. How is this possible? I grow increasingly frustrated as the minutes tick tick tick by and ask myself, "Why am I not asleep?" over and over again. It makes my husband crazy. He thinks there is something wrong with me that only medication can help, and he's probably right. But, the adolescent drug and alcohol therapist in me knows that most sleep aids are addictive, and I just don't want to go down that road. I'll take my Tylenol PM on night's when I know it's going to be bad, which helps a little, and keep on moving. Truth is, it makes me crazy that my sleep issues make him crazy. HELLO! Who's the one who goes to bed an hour early and then listens to him snore the second his head hits the pillow one hour later? It makes me crazy enough some nights that I really want to kick him- HARD. He probably wouldn't wake up. It's so unfair.
I digress- back to my terrible sleepers. Some mornings I hop out of bed in a jolly mood ready to face the day. Some mornings, I fight the urge to cover my head with the pillow and ignore the crying or the "Come on, Mama!!" Of course, I always get up and attend to my kids, although not always with the best attitude. I'm irritated and annoyed that they kept me up all night and now are waking me at the crack of freakin' dawn. But then I see those faces. Those precious little bed head, blankey wrinkled faces. And, I MELT. We face the day together and make the best of whatever it brings. When all is said and done, it's almost always a good day with my munchkins.