The Exhausted Parent

Lately we’ve had a lot of changes in our family.  In my previous post I shared the exciting news of full nights of sleep.  Things have gotten even better since then!  My oldest son, Elijah, got a little indoor tent that looks like an igloo for Christmas from my in-law’s.  The boys have enjoyed hours of fun in the “north pole,” “camping in the woods,” and of course playing games with grandma in the tent.  But a few weeks ago Elijah thought of a new way to use the tent and asked us if he could sleep in it, and if all went well in the first night if he could sleep in it for “3 whole nights.”  We thought that would be fun and secured the tent on top of his bed.  We lined the bottom with a blanket, put his pillow in there, and all of his stuffed animals he loves.  He slept great the first night, so we agreed to let him sleep in there again.  Well, Noah asked if he could sleep with Elijah in the tent.  Noah does not have a great sleep history, but after the boys agreed to our tent sleeping rules, we let Noah join Elijah in the tent.  It has been amazing!  They are going to bed great, they are sleeping through the night most nights, and they are having fun!  It is not our long term plan to keep this up, but for now we are enjoying our sleep, and the fact that our boys are having so much fun at bedtime!

Gracie has been completely weaned from breastfeeding for one week.  She is struggling more than I thought going down for bed, but is still sleeping well.  It’s always so bittersweet to wean them.  I feel sad that she is growing up, that the means by which an incredible bond we forged is no longer a part of our lives, and that very special one on one time is over.  But I’m relieved that I don’t have to worry about too much caffeine, leaking breasts in public, and I know that I will lose weight as I tend to hold onto a few pounds while I breastfeed.

Another exciting change is recently Craig and I have been discussing a potentially life changing decision.  It is a bit personal so I’m not going to go into the details.  However, the idea behind it is important and worth sharing.  As Christians, we struggle with what it means to let God be God and quit trying to control so many aspects of our lives.  We are excited about our renewed sense of faith that God IS God and we are glad that we are always in the process of committing every area of our life to Him.

And the last change is one we hope will benefit you.  We have come up with an exciting idea for a new resource for Christian families.  This opportunity will help you grow your family in the wisdom of the Lord and His servants that have gone before us.  It will aid you in teaching your children about specific character qualities that all of us want in our own lives and the lives of the children we are raising.  I will post more details about this in the very near future.

Have a great week!

So this is just how tired I am.  I haven’t blogged in weeks, although I’ve thought about it.  A few nights ago I decided it was time to update you on our success at night.  As I was about to log on, I forgot my user name to get into the blog!  So did my husband who set the whole thing up!  It took him a couple of days just to figure out how retrieve the information!  But I’m back!

I have an encouraging update!  My Gracie (baby 11 months) has been sleeping through the night for months now and continues to do well even as I wean her from breastfeeding!  Elijah has been sleeping in his own bed all night for a week!  Noah hasn’t had a screaming episode in about 10 days and while he is still waking up at night, he isn’t in our bed.  We have established the boundary and if he wants to be “close” to us, we make him a little bed on the floor with blankets and his pillow, oh yes and of course, “Bear.”  Bear is his lovey and truly a member of the family.  So we are very encouraged that all three of our kids are sleeping so much better!

I have saved the most exciting new of all for last.  For the last three years I have been putting my kids to bed by being in the room with them.  It started with just Elijah.  I was pregnant with Noah at the time and we had just moved into our current home.  I felt bad for him as he transitioned and knowing that he was only months away from giving up his crib, his pacifier, and having a baby, I decided I would just sit in the room as he fell asleep since he was scared of his new room.  Then when he transitioned to his toddler bed, I made the worst mistake by squeezing my pregnant body in there with him and snuggling him.  Long story short, the boys eventually moved into the same room due to the addition of their sister and I continued to stay in there with them.  I eventually weaned Elijah off of the snuggling, but sat in a chair in there until they fell asleep.  Well last week I decreed enough is enough!  I took my evenings back and I must say it feels great!  My boys are going to bed so well, and not only that, but they are staying in their beds and quietly falling asleep ON THEIR OWN!!!  I realize this may not be a big deal to some who never made the mistakes I did regarding sleep, but it is a huge victory in our home and we are so thankful that God answered our prayers and the boys have transitioned beautifully!  Now when Gracie eventually ends up with some sleep issue somewhere along the way, I will remember what NOT to do!

I’m going to clean my kitchen without fear of a little boy coming in crying and then I’m going to bed where the only person I’ll be sleeping with is my husband, well and my dog, but he’s not a person!  Good night!

Last night was one of those nights that exhausted parents everywhere will understand.  I stayed up to watch the football game.  Around midnight I was starting to head toward bed when cries came from the boys’ bedroom.  Elijah, my oldest (5), came running down the hall declaring he and Noah (2) were scared.  I sent him to the potty, went into their room and tried to soothe Noah, who was crying.  Elijah came back in, still scared.  He told me about a bad dream he had, that didn’t really sound very scary to me, but who am I to judge?  He was genuinely scared.  Noah appeared to be back to sleep.  I got into bed with Elijah to snuggle him, that is his favorite thing in the world.  But he wasn’t falling asleep.  I did not want to spend the night in his bed so I tried not to fall asleep.  Finally I told him I had to go to my room so I could go to bed.  He began to cry, I’m such a sucker for tears in the middle of the night.  I told him to come with me and we could snuggle in my bed, but he would have to either go back to his room or make a bed on the floor in my room.  We were only going to snuggle for a few minutes.

As we were walking out of his room Noah began to cry again.  His cries turned to screams, this is all too familiar in our home.  Noah has sleep issues.  Over the last few weeks we’ve seen a lot of improvement, but last night he had a rough one.  I still don’t know how to respond to him when he gets hysterical.  I try to follow what his Dr. has suggested, but I just don’t know.  After about 20 minutes of screaming and sobbing we were able to get him to calm down.  At this point both boys were insisting on sleeping with “mooooommy.”  At this point it was about 1:30am and I was too tired to fight them.  I put Noah on one side of me, Elijah on the other and plopped down in the middle.  Craig came into our room to find our bed full.  He grabbed his pillow and headed out to the couch.  Elijah very kindly told him he could sleep in his bed!  Poor Craig.  Poor me.  It seems like children run, jump, skip, and dance in their sleep!  I got very little sleep and no good sleep at all!  The icing came at 4:30am when I hear Grace screaming in the monitor.  She has been sleeping through the night for over a month, last night of all nights she wanted to nurse in the middle of the night.

Today I was beat.  I warned my boys that they had a grumpy mommy because she was so tired.  We also had a nice long talk about how they will NEVER sleep in my bed again!  I am putting my foot down, no matter how tired I am, we will have peaceful nights again!  Daddy will not get kicked out of his bed and the boys will sleep in their own beds all night!  Sounds like a dream…

Like so many out there, we have been struck by a terrible stomach virus in our home.  It started Thursday night when Gracie was innocently crawling around the living room, getting into stuff.  Incidentally she had no pants on, just a shirt and diaper.  I think she actually crawled out of her pants.  Anyways, she was crawling around when the smell hit us like mac truck.  It was terrible!  Then, I saw it, drips coming out of her diaper making a path behind her, like Hansel and Grettle with the bread crumbs.  Oh no!  I quickly rolled her on her back with a fresh diaper and wipes ready to go.  My husband Craig raced to get the carept cleaner/disinfectant to clean up the “bread crumbs” she left behind.  As I was changing her memories of past viruses hit me as hard as the awful smell.  She is our third child, we are not strangers to diarrhea, and not strangers to it’s many causes.  This was unmistakably the smell of illness.  After Craig scrubbed the carpet he took Lysol to everything she had encountered.  We tried so hard to stop this bug in it’s tracks.  Not thirty minutes later we smelled our enemy again.  We knew we were at war.  We again did all we knew to do to make sure that Grace would be this bug’s only victim.

By Friday our baby girl seemed much better.  The boys were doing great.  Craig and I both felt good and we were excited about our over due date night.  The plan was in place.  My mom would come play with the kids for a while after they ate dinner.  She arrived on schedule at 6:30pm.  Around 6:50, I got Gracie down for the night.  It still takes a while because she is still breastfed.  While I was getting Gracie down, Craig and my mom got the boy in their PJ’s, teeth brushed, diaper changed/potty visit, and ready to roll.  Once the boys were down, we were free for the whole evening.  We had no curfew, the freedom was overwhelming!  The plan worked.  All three children were sleeping.  Mom was good.  We left!

Once we got into the car we  began discussing dinner.  By this time we were both starving.  But I felt uncertain.  I couldn’t tell if I was REALLY hungry or on the verge of getting sick.  Craig kept throwing out ideas and nothing struck me.  We finally ended up at Friday’s.  A safe choice, something for everyone.  But again, nothing sounded good on the menu.  And half way through dinner I realized why.  I was the next victim.

Our date night was cut short and we raced home.  Once we were home Craig began feeling bad.  Within an hour we were both very sick.  Both of us were up for most of the night.  I’ll spare you the details.

At 2am, we were both laying in bed, trying not to move when Noah crawled in our bed fussing.  He is not a very good sleeper, so we were not surprised to see him.  He laid down for a few minutes only to shoot up quickly.  He then leaned over and vomited all over me.   It was a very long night that stretched into a very long weekend.

It seems we lost the war against the bug.  So far our casualties are: date night, good sleep, our weekend, and now my week which is being spent getting caught up on laundry and getting my house as germ free as possible.

So far Elijah has not been sick.  His hands are nearly peeling I’ve made him wash them so often.  I figure if he doesn’t get sick by Thursday he somehow, by some miracle was spared.

Maybe we didn’t lose.  But it certainly didn’t feel like we won either.  Thankfully it seems to be over.  The clothes and sheets have all been washed in HOT water, and some were bleached.  My two year old wasn’t able to make it to the potty to throw up, so there was a spot on the carpet.  I managed to get that not only cleaned up but disinfected as well.  I have sanitized, scrubbed, bleached, and Lysoled everything that anyone has touched in the last 6 months.  And I suppose date night can be rescheduled, hopefully soon!

I wish you better luck against this enemy.  Victory is the only way to protect your family against the fate that my family faced.  If it has already struck your home, grab your Lysol, some sanitizing wipes, antibacterial handsoap, and bleach and WIN!