SLEEP...who needs it!

Sleep....it must be overrated. With a new baby comes less sleep. Well, if Cole was the only one awake it would be one thing. However, it seems like none of the kids feel the need to sleep anymore. Maybe my sleep deprivation is finally catching up with me. I always say that I can go without sleep for a month after I have a baby (I guess I'm still running on adrenaline), then it all hits me.

Before Cole was born, Bryce still slept in our bed A LOT! We worked on getting him to sleep in his own bed and he did good some nights and other nights not so much. We had gotten to the point that he would stay in his own bed until about 3:00 a.m. and then he would come to our bed. It still wasn't good, but it was an improvement. Shortly after Cole was born, Bryce started staying in his bed all night. He might get up in the middle of the night, but he would let me take him back to his bed (I say ME, because he won't talk to Karl in the middle of the night, it has to be Mommy!).

Faith is usually a good sleeper, but lately she has been waking in the early morning hours. She simply yells, "Mommy" until I show up beside her bed (Sometimes Karl does hear her though and will get up for me). All she usually wants is her music turned back on and maybe covered back up if she is uncovered.

Last night...sleeping was not for our family I guess. Karl and I had Small Group Bible Study, so the kids went to sleep at my parents' house and then we picked them up afterwards. We put them in their beds about 10:00 p.m. and all was well. I received my first wake up call at 12:30, when Cole was ready to eat. Not a big deal...fed him and changed his diaper and was back in bed ready to sleep at about 1:00. Then 1:30...Bryce arrives wanting to get into my bed. NOPE!! So, off to his room I go to tuck him back in under his covers. Get back in bed about 1:45. 2:30 would be the next wake-up call, Cole ready to eat again. I guess we are on the every 2 hour eating plan tonight!! Most nights he does eat every 2 hours, but not always. He eats and I'm just about asleep and at 3:15 I get another visitor. Bryce is up again, but I'm not real sure what he is doing (I'm not real sure he was even awake....but maybe he was). I get out of bed and he decides to climb in. Karl finally persuaded him to let me take him back to bed. So, I cover him up and he flops back and forth and all around for a long time (NOT looking good at this point!). Then about 3:45 he decides that he needs his Lego Dinosaur that Daddy made him a couple of days ago (he loves it and has carried it around for 2 days!). Downstairs we go to find the dinosaur. Finally Daddy finds it and back to bed we go. However, in this process he has woken up a lot. He then decides that at 4:15 a.m. he needs a story read to him. I was in no mood to read a story to him (I usually love reading to the kids, but it was a little early for me). We then proceed to argue (yes...I was arguing with a 3 year old) about not turning on his lamp and we aren't reading, it is bed time. Karl then arrives and puts Bryce in bed. It is going downhill and going down fast. Finally, I decide to compromise. Yes, my 3 year old beat me at the game and he won!! I ended up reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar at 4:30 a.m. I decided that if that was what it was going to take to get him to go to sleep then it would just be quicker to read a story than to sit and fight forever. Karl doesn't like me picking my battles, but I've learned to pick a lot of battles with Bryce (it just isn't worth all the fighting! I don't let him get away with everything, but somethings it just doesn't really matter). So...we read and he then layed right down. The problem...he couldn't fall asleep. He tossed and turned and really tried to fall asleep. He wasn't playing around in bed, his eyes were closed and everything (he just couldn't fall asleep--we've all been there and it is miserable). At 5:00 Faith decided to start calling too. She was having some dream about bears and raccoons. She wanted me to turn her music back on and she was good then. At 5:15 a.m., I decided I had enough and we just got up. We came downstairs and Bryce layed on the couch, but never did really fall asleep. So, we had an early start to our day.

Here's hoping that tonight we can all get a bit more sleep. I will say that I haven't been this tired for a long time. I have learned to function on little sleep, but last night was a little too much for me.