It was another rough night. I went to bed at 9:15 thinking I might get ahead of the whole sleep thing, but the kids kept us up all night anyway due to coughs, runny noses, teething issues and general discomfort. If you want to relive the trauma, here is my recipe for you to sleep as if you were at our house:
Begin by rousing yourself from a deep sleep to the sounds of a cranky wailing child and then stumble, cursing, eyes half closed, kicking your toes on the doorjambs while you blindly reach for your child in the dark crib and hope that he doesn't wake up the older one who is tossing and turning with a pillow over his head to drown out his brother's cries...... Now repeat 3 times in the course of the night (ALWAYS wait until you have just reached your deepest sleep before being awoken), then at 3am give up and bring the squalling child into bed with you feeling like you've lost the battle and are a bad parent for giving in. Don't forget to mutter to yourself epithets and grumbles because it's fun to make yourself more miserable by really provoking and stoking your bad mood. Then toss and turn because you have an infant in bed who likes to either poke his finger up your nose, scratch your cheek, kick his legs into your back or all of these things at once. After you've settled down and are back into your deep sleep ( but only just), the monitor comes to life again with the mature wails of your 4 year old who suddenly NEEDS a glass of water and a tissue. This time your husband goes to the rescue, repeating the whole muttering and cursing and stumbling that you experienced only hours before.
Then to top it off, wake up at 5:45 am to a smiling, beaming child who is looming over your face with a sweet look and a toothy grin as if to say "I slept GREAT!!!!!!!!! Why are you so cranky?"
Then kiss his cheek which is soft as silk and give him a butterfly kiss on his nose and poke him in the ribs until he can't breathe because he's giggling so hard, then the door opens and your older son waltzes in with a grin and a knock-knock joke that he thought if during the night, and he crawls into bed and gives everyone a morning hug. The boys sit on top of us, smiling and happy to see us, seemingly unaware of us trying desperately to grasp onto the lingering memories of our long-ago sleep. Then smile and sigh and get out of bed to make breakfast and enjoy the day.
Somehow, no matter how rough the night, the morning seems just fine...
5 comments:
Wow! Do I ever remember those ugly days. One flu season all of our kids were throwing up at once--Of course, it was the middle of the night. With two of them throwing up in the living room we heard a noise upstairs and sure enough it was the third kid (the 4th hadn't been born yet). Bill turned around and looked at the stairs as if the devil himself was after him!!! One good thing about it all----WE GOT IT ALL OVER WITH IN ONE NIGHT!!! Not really a bad way to do it!
Aunt Carol
May those 4 teeth arrive soon and may the immune systems be strengthened - soon!! It would be totally nightmarish, except that those two little boys are so adorable. I can picture Elliot's grin, and it makes me smile. Hang in there. There has to be nights of sleeping coming up. GG
History repeats!
Good Luck,it will get better.
Dzia Dzia
I soooo feel your pain, Lisel! For the past two nights, I've had to sit up in bed with Clara since she can't sleep lying down due to a nasty cold. Evan has gone downstairs to the couch for refuge. And, like her sweet cousins, she's been waking up bright and early happy smiling.
Since Lisel won't listen to her mum, maybe all you mums out there will. Try good quality Clove Oil (Whole Foods) and apply a little drop on the gum. Soothes the teething. Guaranteed.
Nana
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