Got the kids in bed at 7:30 and made a late dinner for Dave and I to quickly enjoy before he started doing work. (He works several hours every night after the kids go to bed - even weekends these days - since he can't get everything done in the 10-12 hours he spends at the office during the week. Our "quality" time is sitting next to each other on the couch with our laptops. Exciting Saturday night, huh?)
I went to bed at 10:00. Lauren woke me up at 1:00. Nap #1: 3 hours. This one turned out to be the longest of the evening. After a couple of minutes of praying for her to go back to sleep, I went in to give her a quick snuggle (and rule out the usual reasons a baby wakes up in the middle of the night) and put her back in the bed. Of course she laid down so nicely and quietly until I left the room and then she screamed. This has become a nightly routine over the last few weeks.
So since there's no sleeping with a crying baby in the room next to yours (unless you're my husband), I went downstairs to wait it out. Dave was still on the couch working, so I laid down on the couch and watched some more football until the tear-fest subsided. I finally deemed it safe to go back to bed at 2:00.
I laid down and started feeling kind of queasy with a headache. Dave came to bed about 2:15 just as I got up to go downstairs to get come crackers and a little Coke to try to make myself feel a little better.
At 3:00 I finally felt good enough to go lay back down. It took me another half an hour to get back to sleep thanks to my headache and Dave's snoring.
At 4:30, Mason called me to take him to the bathroom. Nap #2: 1 hour. I helped Mason and went back to sleep pretty quickly.
At 5:20, I heard the dreaded call of the baby. Nap #3: 50 minutes. Since it had been 10 hours since she last ate, I figured she was just hungry and if I went in and fed her a bit, she'd go back to sleep. She ate, but she didn't sleep.
So we came downstairs and had breakfast and played together. At 7:30 she was sleepy so I put her down for a nap just in time for Mason to wake up for the morning.
Finally, Dave came downstairs at 8:30 and I was able to go back to bed until 10:30. Nap #4: 2 hours.
Total sleep for Mommy: 4 naps of 6 hours, 50 minutes.
One night like this wouldn't be so bad, but I've had a string of them for about 3 or 4 weeks now. I'm not sure what's going on with Lauren, but she's been getting up every night lately. I think it's a combination of teething, just learning new walking skills, and the fact my dreaded monthly cycle just returned causing a wave of new hormones infiltrating my milk supply.
I just keep telling myself that she will eventually sleep through the night. I'm hoping that one night soon, she actually will and I will get to too.
3 comments:
I feel your pain! I'm still getting up several times a night and my non-sleeper is six!!! I always thought we would outgrow it, but now I'm having my doubts....Today I'm going on about 4 hours of sleep and there's just not enough coffee to make that feel good!
I feel tired for you, Karen. Maddux was also a horrible sleeper. I had a period of a couple months with him where he was literally up at least once every hour... literally. It was horrendous. I tried everything and finally begged my pediatrician for some solution. He told me to use benadryl at bedtime and up to one more time each night. Worked like a charm. Part of me hated "drugging" him to sleep, but I really needed something to work. After only one week he was sleeping through the night and after 2 weeks I put the benadryl away for good.
Karen, I hope you're able to get some rest on vacation with your parents there to help you out. I don't know how you cope because I'd be a mess with so much interrupted sleep.
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