Proof that they can sleep, when the choose to.
Sleep has left the building. Seriously. A combination of the time change plus our group illness has left the house essentially sleepless for over a week now. While I appreciate the extra hours of light, I'll come right out and say it: damn daylight savings time. For the first few nights, Mac would not go to sleep with any less than 5 times of "coming out" -- sneaking out of bed with a little smile on her face to go potty, tell me that "the other night I said she could just lay on my lap and watch TV" (I never said that), or just plain run around until I can catch her and put her into bed. And then when I put her in, she yells "Mama, come!" She doesn't even call me "Mama" -- this is her attempt at baby talk, probably because while she is doing all of this I often have Oliver on my lap trying to get him to sleep. In keeping with the old adage "Never go to sleep angry," I hate having to reprimand her before sleep. I want her last thoughts before sleep to be happy thoughts about how much mommy loves her. However, after about 2 times of her coming out, I have completely lost my cool. Then I overcompensate by getting angry, getting her into bed, and then giving her a ton of kisses once she is in there. So maybe I'm sending some mixed messages.
This doesn't happen every night. But more often than not, on the nights that this doesn't happen, she has been waking up in the middle of the night. We have gone through this before and it sucks. I really don't even know what to do. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, it starts with her little feet padding down the hall. Usually a cute sound, it now generates a curse from me, followed by me hitting Tim's arm and telling him to get ready. My equivalent of yelling "incoming!" And this is what happened last night. It may have been our worst ever. She came in around 2:30. Tim had just gotten in bed, so he took the first attempt at getting her back to sleep. So Mac says, "Doggy really wanted to sleep in your bed." I told her that doggy (her stuffed dog, who she was holding) could come back in the morning, but had to sleep in her bed. So she said, "Okay doggy, did you hear that? Maybe another time, okay?" Very cute. So Tim took her and put her in bed. She asked if I could come lay. Okay. So I go lay for quite a while. Every time I went to get up, she looked like she was almost asleep, so I would stay. When it was clear she wasn't going to sleep, I told her I was going to bed. She started to wind up the tantrum. I told her to wait for me in bed 10 minutes and I would come back. If she was still awake, she could come in bed with me. But if she tried to follow me down the hall, she would have to go back in bed with the door closed.
Here's where I made my mistake -- she made it the whole ten minutes, so I went to check on her. I felt I owed it to her to be honest. Dumb. She was falling asleep when I went in. But when she saw me, I had to bring her into my bed.
Of course, all of this time, Oliver is asleep in our bed because I can't figure out how to get him to sleep in his own bed without crying and waking up Mac (like that makes a difference these days. But I do live in fear of him waking her up if I let him cry it out in his crib, for obvious reasons. I reason that after his surgery tomorrow, I'm going to let him sleep with us no matter what. So I'm waiting to train him to sleep in his own bed until after the surgery. Hah.). So we all squeeze into my bed and Mac proceeds to kick, roll, sit, and basically not sleep. So we put her back in bed. Back out she comes. Back in bed. Back out she comes. We close our door so she can't get in. She cries. We put her back in her bed. Finally, around 4:45, she falls asleep. Not because of anything we did, but I suspect because she hit her 2 1/2 hour mark and just fell back to sleep.
Exhausting, and I don't know what to do. I've tried different "sleep methods" and they really rely on a child who listens. And when it comes down to it, the only thing left is to let them cry it out. Which I hate. I've done it with Mac before, and it works, but I hate it. And now that she's not in a crib, it's a whole different game. Plus, with two, if one is sleeping, I don't want anyone crying to wake up the other. But I can't really blame the kids, because neither is a good sleeper. My parents might insinuate that it is karma, because I didn't nap and was also a night-waker. But at this point, we are all so utterly sleep deprived that I don't know how to get us back on track.
At least we all seem to be on the mend. Oliver should be clear for surgery tomorrow. Mac is having a sleepover with Nanny tonight in case we have an early surgery time. Sorry, Nanny -- let me offer my apologies up front.
This doesn't happen every night. But more often than not, on the nights that this doesn't happen, she has been waking up in the middle of the night. We have gone through this before and it sucks. I really don't even know what to do. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, it starts with her little feet padding down the hall. Usually a cute sound, it now generates a curse from me, followed by me hitting Tim's arm and telling him to get ready. My equivalent of yelling "incoming!" And this is what happened last night. It may have been our worst ever. She came in around 2:30. Tim had just gotten in bed, so he took the first attempt at getting her back to sleep. So Mac says, "Doggy really wanted to sleep in your bed." I told her that doggy (her stuffed dog, who she was holding) could come back in the morning, but had to sleep in her bed. So she said, "Okay doggy, did you hear that? Maybe another time, okay?" Very cute. So Tim took her and put her in bed. She asked if I could come lay. Okay. So I go lay for quite a while. Every time I went to get up, she looked like she was almost asleep, so I would stay. When it was clear she wasn't going to sleep, I told her I was going to bed. She started to wind up the tantrum. I told her to wait for me in bed 10 minutes and I would come back. If she was still awake, she could come in bed with me. But if she tried to follow me down the hall, she would have to go back in bed with the door closed.
Here's where I made my mistake -- she made it the whole ten minutes, so I went to check on her. I felt I owed it to her to be honest. Dumb. She was falling asleep when I went in. But when she saw me, I had to bring her into my bed.
Of course, all of this time, Oliver is asleep in our bed because I can't figure out how to get him to sleep in his own bed without crying and waking up Mac (like that makes a difference these days. But I do live in fear of him waking her up if I let him cry it out in his crib, for obvious reasons. I reason that after his surgery tomorrow, I'm going to let him sleep with us no matter what. So I'm waiting to train him to sleep in his own bed until after the surgery. Hah.). So we all squeeze into my bed and Mac proceeds to kick, roll, sit, and basically not sleep. So we put her back in bed. Back out she comes. Back in bed. Back out she comes. We close our door so she can't get in. She cries. We put her back in her bed. Finally, around 4:45, she falls asleep. Not because of anything we did, but I suspect because she hit her 2 1/2 hour mark and just fell back to sleep.
Exhausting, and I don't know what to do. I've tried different "sleep methods" and they really rely on a child who listens. And when it comes down to it, the only thing left is to let them cry it out. Which I hate. I've done it with Mac before, and it works, but I hate it. And now that she's not in a crib, it's a whole different game. Plus, with two, if one is sleeping, I don't want anyone crying to wake up the other. But I can't really blame the kids, because neither is a good sleeper. My parents might insinuate that it is karma, because I didn't nap and was also a night-waker. But at this point, we are all so utterly sleep deprived that I don't know how to get us back on track.
At least we all seem to be on the mend. Oliver should be clear for surgery tomorrow. Mac is having a sleepover with Nanny tonight in case we have an early surgery time. Sorry, Nanny -- let me offer my apologies up front.
