You can never be sure how Mum will be from one day to the next, especially with regard to her being either awake and co-operative, or fast asleep (or playing possum!) and not wanting to move.
We can usually tell if she is just being awkward (the half-closed eyes and surreptitious glances to gauge the reactions, tend to give the game away!) or if she is really tired, and it's just too darned early to get up.
In the past 48 hours, we have had two days, illustrating both extremes. On Tuesday morning, after a disturbed night, she was so fast asleep that the carers decided they would simply give her a bed bath, get Mum into clean clothes, and then leave her to snooze on. All this was achieved with Mum literally not batting an eyelid. She was sleeping so peacefully and comfortably, it would have been very unkind to force her to get up and get going. I kept checking on her, and she was fine. When the carers came back mid-morning, Mum was still asleep; again, they changed her, made sure she was comfy, and left Mum to her dreams.
Mum slept right through breakfast time; she slept right through the morning, until by 2.00 p.m., when the carers arrived for the lunch call, she had had 6 hours more sleep than she usually got. This time, Mum did rouse enough to get up; she was still very sleepy, and sat dozing in her chair whilst I prepared dinner. I could see she was finding it hard to stay awake, so straight after the meal and a nice cup of tea, we got her back into bed for a nap. At 8.00 p.m., Mum got up for tea and cake, but she wasn't keen to stay up a minute more than she had to - I reckoned she had been out of bed for a maximum of 5 hours, which was a lot less than usual. She was asleep within minutes of her head touching the pillow.
Wednesday saw things back to normal - Mum was up and chatty at breakfast, lunch and dinner; she had two naps during the day, and we had a couple of singing sessions, whilst I played the piano.
Thursday proved to be the complete opposite of Tuesday! Perhaps she slept so well on Wednesday night, that she was bright eyed and wide awake from the moment the carers arrived in the morning, until bedtime at 10.30 p.m. Mum had a lie down after breakfast, but didn't drop off to sleep at all; up again at lunch time, she was helpful and co-operative and chatting away. After eating, we thought, surely Mum will need to rest and re-charge the batteries? but no, not at all; she wanted to talk about her mother, and other members of the family. She was confused about some things, but by then Wendy had also arrived to stay with us awhile, and deftly fielded some of Mum's more outlandish statements. It was as though Mum was fizzing with energy - she didn't stop talking, she was also in very good singing voice, and we went through the 1940s' song book with great gusto. Mum was certainly a lot more wide awake this day than I was!
It's almost as if there is a switch in Mum's brain, with the options of Slow, Normal, or Fast Forward. It used to worry us very much if Mum was so sound asleep, she wouldn't stir when the carers arrived to get her up; now, with more experience of her foibles, if it's proving difficult to rouse her, we tend not to panic, and let Mum rest a while longer. With so many people ill at this time of year, the last thing we want is Mum taken off to hospital in an ambulance.
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