Sleep. Again.

My kids are well behaved. They use their manners, can express their thoughts and emotions fairly well, and are good eaters. But sleep is our weakness. I started it when I rocked them back to sleep when they were teething, so I know it’s my doing, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

Their sleep has changed in the last few months. They sleep deeper, and often when they wake up they aren’t actually awake and I can just ask them to lay back down and that is that. Actually, that’s mostly Laney now that I think of it.

Caden has nightmares.* A lot of them. And then I end up bringing her in bed with me, and thus begins the cycle. Sleep was going better until the storm last week. Since then, they’ve been waking up 1-3 times a night.

And I’m done. It’s affecting me and I’m done with it. So I’ve drawn the line in the sand and told them that everyone is sleeping in their own beds, all night. It sucks to hear them cry, to hear them ask to come sleep in my bed, but I’m tired. It’s certainly easier to just haul them into bed with me, and sometimes we even get some sleep. But they’re 2.5 now and they need to start consistently sleeping all night long. This morning I had to wake both of them up at 7:40, so it’s affecting them as well.

Tonight is night three of this. Hopefully it won’t take too many nights and we’ll all be back to a well rested state.

*Anyone else have kids who have frequent nightmares? Is there anything I can do?

Crazy storm

A crazy storm blew threw the midwest all day yesterday and into this morning. Lots of wind and very low pressure. Caden woke up about 11:15pm crying. I went in to rock her for a bit and nothing would really soothe her. I was just about to bring her in bed with me when Delaney woke up. This made Caden cry even more because she knows if it’s just her, she can come to bed with me, but if it’s both of them, they have to stay in their cribs because otherwise no one sleeps. She sobbed and sobbed and finally I just said fine! Everyone come to Mama’s bed. This still didn’t make anyone happy. I wonder if it was the low pressure? They were both scared and were glued to my sides all night. After they both fell asleep I finally got comfortable myself. Amazingly, we all slept pretty well. Lucky for them I don’t toss and turn much because I had no room to move.

I’m always amazed that I can climb out of bed and they can continue sleeping. I snuck back in to get a shot of them because they’re so adorable sleeping, but of course they just started waking up when I took this.

Reason #12 why I had kids

Sunday morning I lost my coffee cup, so I asked the girls if they had seen it. Delaney pointed to their toy cupboard and said “There it is Mom!” And there it was. She also located her shoe and her backpack when I could not.

This weekend was a little crazy. Saturday we met my SIL, nieces, and my mom out for coffee. It was a beautiful day so my dad drove his motorcycle up and met us back at our house. Since my parents were there I figured we’d push their nap back to 1:30. Thirty minutes shouldn’t matter should it? Except it did. There was no nap and not only was there no nap, there was a party in their room instead. I had cleaning I needed to get done, so I let it go (in between going in and trying to settle them down occasionally, which didn’t work at all). By the time I got them out of their cribs I was crazy annoyed so everyone went downstairs so I could run off my bad mood.

Which brings me to a topic I’ve been meaning to talk about – sleep. Where we used to be able to push naptime and bedtime, now we can’t. They need to be in their cribs by 1:00 or we all pay the price. It used to be they could miss a nap and you didn’t really notice. Now the evening becomes meltdown city with me and the other sister caught in the crossfire. When Delaney doesn’t sleep she gets very defiant. You have to ask her 15 times to do everything and even then, she’ll ignore you.

At my brother’s fish fry I let them stay up late. We were in the truck about 8:30, which meant we didn’t get home and in bed until 9:15 or so. The next day was BRUTAL. So much crying.

It’s good to know, because I simply don’t mess with either now. I’m sure at some point we’ll swing back around and be flexible again, but until then, it’s back to a strict schedule.

ps – Caden’s eye is draining! By Saturday morning it looked good. I only noticed one errant tear on Sunday, and that could have been anything. Yay!

Tuesday morning

Yesterday afternoon I put Caden down for a nap at 11:30am. She probably could have gone down earlier, but I wanted her to have lunch first. Delaney and I played until 12:30pm when she asked to take a nap. I finished up a few things and then took a nap for an hour myself. I woke up feeling so much better! I could eat again finally! At 3:45pm I was on the phone with my brother when I realized the girls needed to get up or no one was going to sleep that night. Caden slept for 4 hours and 15 minutes! Delaney for over 3 hours! And I had to wake them when I went in their room. The nap totally made a difference for Caden as well. It was so nice to hear her talk last night. I’ve missed her little voice.

They slept from 7:00pm – 7:15am, so I think they should be good to go today. Just in case, we brought Caden’s lucky blanket into daycare in the hopes that it buys her a two hour nap.

Ni ni?

Delaney loves her crib. She loves to sleep, she loves thinking about sleep, she asks about going to sleep. It’s all very cute. She usually starts asking about going to bed about 30 minutes beforehand. She’ll haul her blankets out, put them on the ground and then lay down on them with her little butt in the air. She doesn’t really want to go to bed, but I think she starts getting kind of excited for it. Lately, she’s been saying “Ni ni?” even during the day. The nanny said she curled up on the couch like this one day after nap.

No Nap Caden

I have no idea why, but Caden refused to take naps this weekend. Around lunchtime she was tired, staring, seemed ready to get some sleep, but once in her crib it just didn’t happen. She chatted, sang, lay there quietly, cried, but didn’t sleep. Or didn’t sleep for any meaningful amount of time. It’s always nice to get some one on one time with her, but by 6:00pm it was clear she was beyond tired and having mental breakdowns. Poor honey. At least she’s been sleeping well at night.

Baby? No, that’s just Madison

Caden is getting her top eye teeth in right now. I can feel one poking through and the other is about to. For all intents and purposes, this has not been a horrendous ordeal. She’s happy and smiley during the day, but night time sleep has been interrupted. We seem to be on a one night good, the next night awful rotation. Last night was awful. And really the awful? Not that awful.

They both slept fine until midnight, which would have been easier on me had I gone to bed before midnight, but alas, I did not.  Caden woke, and then Delaney of course piped up with some dramatic crying of her own.  I gave Caden some Tylenol, we rocked, and back to bed.  Only to awake 15 minutes later.  Okay, come to bed with mama.  She tossed, she turned, she smiled, she eventually went back to her own bed.  And cried again 15 minutes later.  Again, Delaney threw in some dramatic crying.  We rocked, Delaney went back in her crib, but Caden refused to unlock her legs, so back to bed with me.

This time I thought she was going to sleep.  She snuggled in and I thought we were good.  And then Madison decided this would be the *perfect* night to sleep with us on the bed.  Caden sat up and said “Baby?  Baby?  Baby?”  No sweetheart, kitty.  That’s Maddy.  She’s a kitty.  ”Baby?”  Ugh.  And of course 1:30am is the time Madison decides to be lovey and purring and leaning into Caden who giggled and petted her and eventually lay down beside her to snuggle even more.  Cute?  Sure.  But I eventually put a stop to it because hello!  It’s now 2:00am!  And even better, Delaney has realized Caden is not in the crib next door and that will not do, she cannot sleep without her sister.  Much snuffling and crying later we were all in the rocker again.  Luckily, 18th time is the charm and everyone was lights out after that.

Here’s to hoping I didn’t jinx a good night tonight.

Yes they are identical

There are times when if I hadn’t seen the single placenta myself, I would seriously wonder whether or not my girls were really identical.  And then there are moments when it’s obvious they are two halves of the same coin.

Please sleep

When Caden is sick she prefers to be near another warm body.  Part of the problem with this is that the girls so rarely sleep in bed with me, that they often think it’s playtime.  When I brought her in with me Tuesday night she was already overtired and all she wanted to do was clap and play with my hair.  Last night I was smarter and brought her in at 11:00pm when she was still tired and would go right back to sleep.  As babies go, she’s really good to sleep next to.  She’ll fall asleep with her head next to mine, but somehow ends up sleeping perpendicular to me off to the side.   I’m expecting a similar repeat tonight.

Delaney never wants to sleep with me.  That girl needs her room!  Even after rocking for a bit she’ll lift her head up and I know she’s ready to go back to her crib.

Pictures from earlier tonight.  There are a few drawers I haven’t babyproofed and they love to dig in them.  One houses my aprons.  They love to get them out and play with them.  I tied this one around Caden and she crawled around showing it off.

Delaney with a puzzle piece in her mouth, and one in each hand.

Saturday morning

The illness hit us hard. Everyone is much better now, but I think that’s due to some solid sleep this weekend. Normally the girls wake up anywhere between 7:15 – 7:30am. On Saturday I woke up at 8:15am and realized no one was making a peep. I checked on the girls to verify both were sleeping, then did what any mom would do. I took pictures of them for the blog, and them made myself a latte.

Caden @ 8:20am.

Delaney @ 8:20am. To be fair, she had woken up at 7:00am. I gave her her pacifier and apparently she pulled her grammy quilt down, snuggled in and went back to sleep.