Thursday, March 31, 2011

The child who dosen't sleep.............(much?)


I have a problem. You know, it's personal but now people look at me and say, You're looking tired today, eh!(Canadian slang, eh!)
It's baby dear and she is making me tired and making me feel over 40, all in the same light.

Let's start from the beginning..........
Little children should sleep late in the morning. At least stay asleep for an HOUR after mom gets up and starts her day.
Eh, no. Baby Dear used to.

I wake up when MR kisses me goodbye. I pray, take my thyroid medication, brush teeth, take out rollers,(another story), get dressed, check Baby Dear, slowly crumble down the first set of stairs. Then I attempt to wake up the older children, make sure they have their clothes for the day, go down another flight of stairs and head for the kitchen while trying to remember what I am making for breakfast and dinner, cut on the computer in a lame attempt to do schoolwork after the older children leave but before the little ones wake up and start making breakfast. Now, Baby Dear wakes up as soon as I stumble down 2 flights of stairs and put my finger on the controls of stove! I traverse up mount stair-a-lot in an fury with the hopes of pacifing her back to sleep. The monitor is on this whole time and I can hear that she is breathing heavily into into it. Probably an attempt from her to get me moving faster. "Move it slave! Faster I said!!!"

Alright, back to where I was. Oh. Hmmm dee dum.
Oh, yes. So now all of a sudden, her sleep habits change and she wakes up right after me. She really dosen't seem to take a morning nap unless we are driving somewhere and somewhere between 12:30 and 1:30, she is usually crying for me to put her to sleep. When she gets good and snory during this nap, someone manages to make a loud crashing noise or the phone rings, resulting in the shortest powernap on the planet. Seven minutes has been timed on this little girl and she was just so rejuvenated! If mommy had gone to bed late and woke up early, then 1pmish comes and I can hardly keep my eyes open either! The 3 yr old dosen't seem to take a nap unless you force her to and then it seems as if her eyes are still open. Waiting, watching, not sleeping....
You can see it, can't you? Sleepy mom, grumpy, sleepy, accompanied by wide awake Baby Dear and peppy 3 yr old. This is definitely a combination of troublesome proportions! One time I was so sleepy that I laid on the floor with the baby crawling all over me while I took a "Hot-second powernap."
Floating away in the land of endless nods, I was in my peaceful place. You know, a Zen moment when you are so happy where you are and are warm and comfortable. This is the place where all your best dreams happen. I call it the land of "So Wonderful". Well, seven minutes in "So Wonderful" is NOT ENOUGH! You wake up angry and feeling like you want to hurt someone and the last thing you want is for someone with sharp nails crawling across your face!
She also gets sleepy around 5pm. I am usually knee deep in making dinner when she becomes an inconsolable mass of tears and slobber. A sibling does his or her best to fend off the insanity, but eventually she gets handed to me and I have to hand dinner over resulting in some strange kitchen mistake that has us eating refried beans and tortilla chips instead of a real dinner. At bedtime, I start the nightly ritual at 7:30. Bath, pajamas, stories and prayers, followed by hugs and kisses. She falls asleep right after 8 and as soon as I head downstairs for a nerve soothing chocolate, she is crying again! I head back up mount stair-a-lot to feed her and lie down with her for a while. After a while, I pop back up to shower and go to bed. BabyDear wakes up at last 2-4 times in the night for another drink and then wakes up in the morning like nothing ever happened.
I , on the other hand, feel like a train has pushed me down the block on my face!. This has been going on night after night and when someone told me that I looked tired, then I figured out that BabyDear is sucking the sleep out of me by not
sleeping!
Now that I have shared my story, any suggestions?
I am too young for dark circles and I'm not getting much done around here!
Help!

3 comments:

Aleceia said...

Benedryl:)...idk...im childless...u should really consider this as a 39 min sitcom....i would def. Tune in to the harris family

Unknown said...

Jeesh. you don't want my advice. I say just let her cry...or strap her to your back, Africa style. Something African is ALWAYS the solution to MY problems.

akitchenqueen said...

Malaka?
I`m getting up there in years and don`t think I can strap this gigantic little piggy to my back for long. She weighs as much as my 3 year old!!!!!