Everybody Sleeps

Everybody sleeps
Everybody sleeps
Every night we close our eyes
Until the morning creeps
Mountaineers on mountain tops
And divers in the deeps
They like to sleep
How do we know it's so
'Cause everybody, everybody sleeps

There are people who sleep lightly
There are people who sleep sound
There are folks who tuck themselves in bed
And some sleep on the ground
There are people who sleep nightly
There are people who sleep days
But it really doesn't matter
Don't you know, it's so
'Cause you can sleep in oh so many ways

'Cause everybody, everybody sleeps
Everybody sleeps

Remember this wonderful song on Sesame Street? I remember it as a kid, and watching all of the different people sleeping. (sigh)

We've been having some sleeping issues at our house for several months (since her first cold). Diddles can't quite seem to get the hang of staying asleep at night. Her schedule goes something like this: 12:00am, 2:30am, 4:00am, 5:15am, 6:30am. She's five months...c'mon now. She gags on a binkie, she refuses a bottle, and gags on the top as well, we're slowly working on giving her solids to hold her over a little longer. I don't know. Every child is different, this I DO KNOW. The easiest way to put her back to bed when she awakes wailing in the night is to nurse her back to sleep, and just keep her with me in bed. That's a WHOLE LOTTA nursing, people. But, I worry about letting her cry in the night for fear of waking the entire house (I'm already wide awake) and feel badly sending Josh to work with little sleep. The other struggle we have is not only does she cry, but she busts out of her swaddle (my only baby who hates sleeping on her tummy) and then proceeds to claw at her head and face with her fingernails, and no matter how much I trim them, she still ends up with little scratches all over.

Who me?
Hey guys! Party in my crib tonight!
Don't I look underfed?

Well, you can imagine what I feel and look like in the morning when at 7am, twokids are ready for their hot breakfast after a full night's sleep, and itching to play and have fun...all...day. With an average of four hours of sleep a night, I'm exhausted and cranky, running on empty (literally), and a nap is a very fuzzy, very distant memory. Dear naps, I miss you. Love, Amy

Josh took pity on me, and came up with a plan to be in charge of putting her back to sleep when she cries out at night. He's good at "tough love". He also has a special gift of being able to fall back to sleep seconds after his head hits the pillow (lucky lad). So, he sleeps in the "crash bed" in her room, which is also a firmer mattress for his bad back. I sleep in our bedroom and come get her when I feel like she's genuinely hungry. Dear Josh, I miss you. Someday we will sleep together again. Love, Amy. Boo sleeps in her bed, unless she had a "bad dream" and then she drags her bedding into the hallway. Yaks....well...he's a whole other story.

With this new arrangement, we've needed to break Yaks of a bad habit that creeps in and out since we broke him of his binkie habit - that of sneaking into bed with Josh in the middle of the night. One night I realized that Boo was the ONLY one who was actually in HER own bed, where she belongs! What is the matter with us? So, I instituted a little sticker chart for both kids (to make it fair and even) that each night they stay in their beds "all the night", they get a sticker. Once they make it to the lilypad, they get a trip to the dollar store for a prize. It's worked great, up until last night.

Josh informed me that Yaks crawled into bed with him in the early morning, and Josh said, "Yaks, you won't get a sticker on your chart if you sleep in my bed." Yaks paused, and sat very quietly for a good minute and then said, "Dad, you can just split your chart wiff me! So, you can have duh sticker tuday." Isn't that hilarious? I had a good laugh, just imagining his little brain coming up with that "compromise" so he would still get a sticker on his chart, but that it would be Dad's sticker. Little stinker.

Here's hoping for a good night's sleep for all of us. Someday. :)