I’ve always loved my sleep!
I truly think that the amount of sleep one needs is as genetic as traits come and while my father needs very little sleep, I take after my mom who always takes the chance to sleep in whenever it presents itself.
I’ve attempted to become a morning workout person about 17 times in my life….most have failed. It takes an alarm to wake me up and only the 10 o’clock news thinking about coming on to get me to fall asleep.
These are the facts and I’m proud of them. I had only an inkling of how kids could mess with my sleep needs when we first got pregnant with Bree. Now that we have Bauer and Bennett is almost here, I’m pretty convinced I may never have a good night’s sleep again.
The future of my sleep patterns gives me anxiety…a lot of it.
Having kids is a permanent determent to a parent’s sleep pattern, this I know. But I also thought that once you got through the first year with most kids, you could look forward to at least sleeping through the night.
This was so true with Bree, it was an amazing little present at around 8 weeks of age!
With Bauer we did not get so lucky as he still wakes up most nights and needed at least one bottle regularly between 3 and 4am until his first birthday! Thank goodness Sean survives on very little sleep.
As I’ve blogged about before, in anticipation for Bennett’s arrival, we decided to move Bree and Bauer into the same room. My whole plan revolved around the idea that these changes would happen way in advance of Bennett’s arrival as to not allow the kids to blame his existence for any of the new housing arrangements.
So back in late August we started working with Bauer to sleep in the bottom bunkbed. He took to it immediately. We had about two weeks of blissful B&B sharing the Beach Room like it was the best idea mom and dad had every come up with. Like most things in the parenthood realm, if it seems too easy, it probably is and you are most likely being set up.
We fell…hook, line and sinker.
So about two weeks into the blissful combo room, Bauer started to get his “sea-legs” and begin to explore his new surroundings. Bree luckily is still a horrible napper and thus falls asleep very quickly at night. So his exploring did not bother her in the least. He would turn out lights, close doors, pull books off all the shelves, climb into Bree’s bed and read her books (this was pretty funny to watch), etc. Eventually he would crawl back into the bottom bunk and pass out.
It was a very livable arrangement…
…until Bree stayed awake one night long enough to find out how much fun the two of them could have together or better yet, how much trouble she could get Bauer into by yelling to us his every move.
Bedtime became a struggle for both Mom and Dad. I began to crave night meetings at work just to give me a reason to not have to deal with the debacle that would be bedtime. The two of them together became a combination of laughter and screaming for about two hours after bed-time commenced.
This resulted in Bauer becoming a monster most days…we blamed it on the “two’s” and his red hair mostly, but then it occurred to me yesterday after the kids spent the night at Grammy’s that maybe he is just acting so badly because he is beyond exhausted. He just can’t handle the freedom of the bunkbeds. He should still be in his crib.
So for the first time in this whole parenting game, I made a non-strategic decision. I asked Sean to try putting him in his crib for naptime (this worked amazingly well) and then we put him back in the crib for night time. He sleep the longest he has in weeks and was in an incredibly good mood today.
Why is this non-strategic you ask? Well, there is the fact that another baby is arriving in about 5 weeks and currently may only have a bottom bunk bed to sleep in. But for once, I’m just going to let this be the solution for the next 5 weeks and cross the Bennett bridge when we get there! My type A personality loves sleep this much….I’ve put up the white surrender flag to the amazing strategic plan.
So last night Bree was in the top bunk sleeping very soundly, while Bauer snoozed in his old room. I was watching a little tv and getting ready to pass out during the weather report. I was feeling like this was going to be a great night’s sleep to finish off an amazing weekend..
Around 1:30, I had a visitor….Bree wanted to get in bed with us.
Sean somehow coaxed her back into the top bunk.
Around 3:30, I had a repeat visitor who became hysterical when I mentioned the idea of returning to her bed.
Once again, Sean rallied and got her in her bed….there was much screaming and kicking of things but I do remember all becoming quiet as I tried to return to snooze-ville once again.
Around 5am I woke up to go to the restroom (thanks Bennett) and almost stepped on my daughter who was asleep on the floor next to my bed. REALLY….
So my sleepy self patted myself on the back for at least “winning” the battle of not letting her sleep in the bed with us and just let her snooze away.
Tonight after we got home from school, Sean and I asked Bree what caused her to come into our room so many times. She looked us straight in the eye and said that the animals on top of her dresser kept moving and scared her. I asked her what animal scared her the most and she said without hesitation, “The big gray bunny!”
I immediately laughed at the irony of her being scared of the bunny that I had slept with until after Sean and I’s wedding. That bunny was my nightly companion for many a scary night throughout the years.
She also didn’t like the tiger (this tiger was one of my prized possessions from a trip to Las Vegas).
We went into the Beach Room and I removed them from the shelf and they will now reside in Bennett’s closet for the foreseeable future.
We asked her multiple times if this is what the problem was last night and she said “Yes, I don’t like it when those animals would move!” Okay, problem solved. Remember what I said about things being too easy…
So here we are at night two of Operation “Bauer returns to crib”. My overly exhausted self is just hoping against hope that we all can have a solid night of sleep.
Sean and I both know that we have only weeks before we may never sleep again…three kids, two bedrooms and the odds are most definitely not in our favor! But we really were thinking we could at least enjoy the rest of October.
I’ll keep ya posted!
