sleep. . . a foreign concept

Sleep: A natural state of bodily rest in which there is a decreased ability to react to stimuli. REGULAR SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL.

I'm not sure how exactly to get this message across to my oldest child. He is almost 18 months old and is still a HORRIBLE sleeper. As of late, he has been sleeping with us in order for us to maximize sleep hours. However, this has backfired on us. While we get to escape having to wake up and try to get him back in bed (which may take anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes otherwise), we now have to deal with feet, hands, head, and bum in our face, on our head, chest, hips, legs, etc. He is at the head of the bed one moment, and at the foot the next. Then, he decides that neither of those is quite right and it would be better to lay sideways to get sleep. We have a queen sized bed, and our 18 month old son (who is small for his age) takes up about 2/3 of it (if not more). My husband and I, more often than not, end up clinging for dear life to the edge of the bed (my husband sleeps inside so he is protected by the wall, I don't have that luxury, haha). I don't understand the child. How can he function during the day? and then he'll wake up at 9 or 9:30 in the morning REARING to go. . .

What's even MORE frustrating, is when you hear about babies that are 2 months old sleeping RIGHT through the night! I used to get so frustrated with that. . . I couldn't understand why my child wouldn't do that. How is it that one child never sleeps, while other children sleep right through? It's even more frustrating (although, a welcomed change) that my 3 month old child sleeps throught the night better than my 18 month old. My 3 month old goes to bed and will sleep for 6 hours straight (ex. 11 pm until 5 am). How can two siblings be so different?

Apparently, it's a family trait, though. I was a horrible sleeper (and still am, I wake with the least little thing), my cousin used to wake up during the night for a snack until he was 11 years old. . . and then he still woke up, but he just got his own snack! I just don't know what to do about the sleep situation.

I don't think there's any need for him to be waking up during the night. He's only a small boy, and he eats all day long! We've tried the "crying it out" method, but after 4 hours of crying, and not letting up, and throwing up everywhere, we decided that the method just was not going to work with our child. We tried taking his nap from him during the day, and it was even WORSE during the night to keep him asleep.

Ultimately, I keep trying to tell myself that it won't be like this forever. Eventually he'll grow up and I'll probably be wishing that he were sleeping in our bed again, cuddling into us throughout the night. However, lack of sleep is making me a little crazy. I have become forgetful, stun, and ultimately I feel like I'm sleep-walking my way through the days most of the time. My husband is wonderful and we share the load, but that just means that we're BOTH exhausted all of the time.

I love my babies, but I would love to have a little sleep as well, haha. I'm not going to wish my time away, but I refuse to quit trying to find ways to make my sleeping situation better. Feel free to comment and leave suggestions!

The Runaway Mom

Ok, so I am obviously having one of those days. You know, the kind where you feel like you might just run out the door at any moment and never look back? The kind of day where your children take EVERYTHING that you have and try every part of your patience. . .

The morning was wonderful, Andrew slept for a lot of it and Brad was home to help out. I got a chance to clean the bathroom and do the floors, so I thought I was having a pretty good day.

Then Brad has to leave for a lunch meeting.

Isaac decides to get tired and need a nap.

Andrew wakes up.

I put Andrew in his swing, where he was content for the time being and decided to try to Isaac to go down for a nap. That would free up a couple of hours, and after I fed Andrew I would have some time to myself and be able to get some things done around the house.

Isaac's eyes were HEAVY, I brought him in the room under his fan (he was warm) and sort of walked/sang/shook him until he was asleep. I, happily, placed him on his bed thinking I'd head out to Andrew and get him situated. As I was putting Isaac on the bed, he started BLARING and CLINGING to me for dear life! I thought, OK, he wasn't asleep enough. Took him up, and started the process all over again. In the middle of the "process", Andrew decided to have a huge poop and start crying to be changed. When Isaac was dead weight in my arms and breathing pretty steadily/heavily, I tried once again to put him down so I could go take care of my other screaming child. I went to put him on his bed and, much to my dismay, the SAME THING happened!

Andrew needed to be changed so I put Isaac down and let him cry and spit and snot until I got Andrew's bum changed. Then I put Andrew back in his swing and tried Isaac again. I waited longer this time, but once again he freaked out when I tried to put him down. I took him up and once again Andrew started crying as well, needing to be fed. So, I came out on the couch, got Andrew out of his swing. At this point, I had Isaac in one arm and Andrew in the other, using the same hand that was holding Andrew to feed him, and Isaac was getting mad because he could lay down in my arms.

After a while, Isaac gave in and went to sleep upright. I got excited and decided, once Andrew had enough milk, to try him again. Guess what happened. . .

Anyhow, Andrew was content to I layed him on the couch where he could see me and brought Isaac out and held him in my arms while I sat next to Andrew trying to entertain him. Isaac once again went to sleep and I, in my stubborn way, decided that I needed to try to bring him in to his bed again. I held my breath, prayed to the dear Lord for mercy, and brought him into his room.

HE STAYED!!!

I then came out, got Andrew and rocked/finished feeding him, and HE WENT TO SLEEP AS WELL! So, I have had about 5 minutes of peace, and since I started writing this have calmed down a bit. I no longer feel like running away, I now feel like staying forever :)

Just an average day in my house. . .