Sleepless Nights.
Sleepless nights. They are a given when you have one child, when you have three it is a certainty. I talked some last about schedules and they are a constant work in progress for us, but progress does come.
Last night A and I were really ahead of the game. It was 10:00 PM and everyone was washed, fed and in the cribs. We had a little more time for ourselves....... what to do? Sleep of course! Get ready for bed just as quick as you can and rush, rush, rush to fall asleep. It was almost as if we knew we would "get caught". Just as I was about to head to the back room, Livi started to stir. It was as if to say, "Hey now wait a minute... I must have drifted off and in that time someone went and stuck me in my crib, but it isn't time... I have a few minutes yet. “Approaching her crib I saw her little head bob up in the air and slanting, tired eyes looked up and me in a whimper. I had been caught. I picked her up and she laid her head on my shoulder. We rocked a bit in the nursery while Benjamin took hold of the operations and discovered he too was prematurely to rest. Sammy?... ah yes - there you are just a few minutes later. There we all were. Still under the frustration and exhaustion, they were cute as buttons and I was.. well spotted with spit up and have seen better days. We were all exhausted, but only one of us wanted to sleep. “A” too had lost the opportunity and we now each worked on getting them all back down and to rest.
Sleep is something it seems every child fights. Our oldest comes up with half a dozen, Oh I forgot to's each night at bedtime. Suddenly her mind is a steel trap, remembering every detail of what she must accomplish before being in bed. If this one is getting old, the other trick is to play it cool. Distract. Don't let your parents know you know you that you are working towards an extra five minutes, but make them believe you are actually in the process of departing to bed. Go find the cat you haven't paid attention to all day and give him a long hug and goodnight wish, that kind of thing.
I too remember bedtime as the ultimate curse. I just never would have imagined that at six months of age, it already begins. Of course now there is nothing I could imagine as more enjoyable than a mandatory 10:30 AM nap time at work. I would pull out my blue mat and curl up under my desk with talk radio playing softly from my computer. How sweet it would be.