sleep, sweet sleep...

...is what all of us are in need of right now. Anyone who knows our kids knows that they are notoriously bad sleepers and they deal with nightmares and night terrors and cannot calm themselves. All parents deal with some issue with their kids (at least all the parents that we know!), and ours happens to be sleep. Combine that with everyone adjusting to a newborn in the house and we are having some really rough nights. W's been having the worst time at night, but it has affected G too.

The other night, for example, it took us until 10 to get G&W down, then another 1/2 hour for changing and nursing Baby C and getting him to sleep. S & I then sat down with bowls of ice cream ready to relax for an hour before going to bed ourselves, praying for a peaceful night. At 11, W woke up crying and restless and it took us almost 45 minutes to get him calmed down and back to sleep. We then started to get ready for bed ourselves and G woke up crying really hard and couldn't stop - like for another hour! We finally got her calmed down and were in bed (with G too), when W woke up again screaming-he was very mad this time and didn't want to be picked up (sign of night terror), but kept flailing into the side of his crib. We kept switching off with him for the next hour and didn't think anything would calm him down including TV, when it popped in my head to try listening to different music. I asked W if he wanted to listen to Uncle M's CD, and then there was quiet - wonderful quiet - and W says tearily "yeah." So now W was quiet and listening to Uncle M, but we are still not sleeping, and W is so upset that he is clinging to us and we can't get him to lay back down in his bed - so after another half hour we pulled him in bed with us too. (we are starting to regret only buying a queen, not a king!) It is now 1:30, and cue Baby C to wake up to eat! I nurse in bed so now we have EVERYONE in bed with us. I thought that maybe everyone would sleep now all snuggly, but no. Both G&W were up 2 more times (being all in the same room/bed had no matter because only one would wake up at a time - even with screaming going on!) as well as Baby C's normal "feed me" wakings every 3 hours. Plus all kids decided to be done and up for the day at 6:30. S and I got no more than 3-4 hours of sleep and our nerves were pretty shot. Not every night is like this, this was by far the worst, but we are dealing with some form of it each night yet.

Thankfully, the kids have been doing well (for the most part) during the day. They love Baby C, have been playing well with each other, only have mild breakdowns here and there, and W has been taking a good nap during the day and G has been going down for quiet time well so S & I are able to allow each other to take a good nap. Unfortunately, that leaves very little time to get anything else done, especially with us feeling as fried as we do too. We keep hoping that the kids will adjust soon, and I am sure that they will, but S was hoping to accomplish more than just a nap in the 5 weeks that he has off (paid!!) from work.

We may complain about no sleep, but we love our little blessings, no matter how sleep deprived we are, and are thrilled with the joy that all three bring to our lives. It is amazing how we already can't imagine life without Baby C!