Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Lady of the Night

Alternately titled, Birth Control.


A few things you need to know before reading this:

1. Given no constraints, I prefer to sleep from 10:30pm to 7:30am. I had the grand pleasure of discovering that one glorious summer in Okinawa. Ahhh, the good ol' days.

2. Despite also needing a lot of sleep on a regular basis, Wyatt went to bed an hour late last night and then it was only after having gotten himself so worked up about taking a shower instead of a bath that he puked. And of course he'd hardly eaten any dinner.

3. I sleep with a monitor for each kid within a foot of my pillow.

What went down:

1:25 am: Millie starts whining. My first thought is to let Jeff take her out, then I remember that he's briefing a General today and also flying which trumps my sleep. I take Millie downstairs and let her out.

1:29: Millie's in; I check on Natalie for signs of wakefulness/middle of the night feed. She's out.

1:35: back in bed; drifting back to sleep.

1:45: Wyatt stirs; the sleep talk involves "Daddy, Mommy.....can I have something to eat." My mind is turning and calculating that yes, he's probably pretty hungry. Drift back to sleep.

1:55: Natalie's awake. Go downstairs to make the bottle.

2:03: While feeding Natalie, hear Wyatt start yelling for me. Realize he's fully awake and start coming up with a plan of action.

2:15: Natalie's back in bed; Wyatt has stopped yelling. Decide to take care of everything at once and go back downstairs to get Wyatt a snack. Decide on a slice of bread - not exciting enough to become a habit but filling enough to get him through.

2:18: Walk into Wyatt's room and promptly knock over a plastic bucket full of God knows what toys. It's loud. He sits upright in bed and immediately starts whining for something to eat. Feeling like a supermom, I offer up the bread.

2:19: He starts crying about how he doesn't want bread because it will be messy on his hands. He wants a fruit snack or maybe some Jell0.

2:20: I'm still trying to explain that we don't have any fruit snacks and that Jello is messier than the bread. The bread is his only option. He concedes the point and asks me to put the bread on his nightstand. He then asks me to cuddle with him.

2:25: He's settled down, I crawl out of his bed.

2:27: Ahhhh, back in bed. Beautiful sleep.

4:00: Wyatt cries out once, just enough to wake me. Drift back to sleep.

4:15: Natalie starts fussing. Go check on her and find her head against the bumper. Move her so she can go back to sleep.

4:40: Natalie wakes again. Get up and go check on her. Again. She's awfully awake and acting a little hungry. Take her with me to go mix another bottle.

4:45: Feeding Natalie in her room; she falls asleep in my arms. I put her back in bed.

4:46: She's not asleep. Pick her up again, rock her until she's asleep then put her back in bed.

4:55: Finally get back into bed.

5:30: Husband's alarm. Hear the shower and see lights in the bathroom.

5:59: Husband kisses me goodbye, thinking I'm asleep. Muster a "good luck" for him; he apologizes for waking me. Fall back to sleep within seconds.

6:15: Natalie stirs.

6:20: Wyatt yells for me. I try the ignore and hope he goes back to sleep method.

6:45: Realize Natalie is asleep but Wyatt will not fall for it. We're up for the day.

6:46: Go to Wyatt's room, he asks for his bread from his nightstand and then starts crying because it's "too bumpy." It's going to be a great day.


And all of this after I told Jeff last night, "I never mind holding Natalie in the middle of the night because I feel like I don't get to hold her enough, but it will sure be nice when both kids are in bed at 8:30 and not awake again until 6:30 or 7."

5 comments:

Adrienne Rost said...

sorry...sounds like a long night. Take a nap today...

Taylor and Allison said...

Laughing out loud! I can totally relate! My monkeys are 21 months old, and mostly sleeping through the night. They have the random night cries that don't "wake" them up, but wake me up... repeatedly. and get up at 6am on the dot every. signle. day. :)

The Blake Family said...

Hmmm...I'm so sorry that your night was rough. Hope it's been better since. So, should we consider having a second? Or, in your opinion, is one sufficient? ;)

Leslie said...

At least your night was adventurous? Hee hee. I do not look forward to the lack of sleep again.

The Thomas Crew said...

Hope you've had better nights since this one! Hang in there...one day they'll be able to wake up in the morning without you having to immediately get up with them! NICE!