We’re only a day in and so far? 2010 was my year. 2011 is someone else’s. And while I know it’d be super greedy to ask for TWO years (back-to-back, no less) I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t start the new year in such a zombie-like fashion. Flesh-eating isn’t healthy, so I’m told. And The Walking Dead kind of creeped me out a little bit.
Wait, what?
That’s the sleep-deprivation talking.
You see, dear friends, my child was Up. All. Night. I have no idea what’s going on. Not a clue. I’ve asked Dr. Twitter and it could be ears, teeth, a growth spurt, night terrors or demonic possession. (No one was actually cruel enough to tell me it was that last thing, though some of them were probably thinking it.)
It seems that sleep is the one thing about Joshua that has constantly kept me stymied. We get a few good nights and I think “Hallelujah! We’ve turned the corner!” and then? Nights like last night happen where I’m all “FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY I AM NEVER HAVING ANOTHER CHILD SO HELP ME GOD AND THE SWEET BABY JESUS IN HIS SWADDLING CLOTHES.”
On the one hand, his sleep is likely all out of sorts because he’s been home with me for two weeks. But if I send him to daycare when I’m home, I get a whopping case of Mom Guilt and feel all loser-ish. It doesn’t even matter that I’ve paid for the week. I just can’t seem to send him for more than a day when I’m home on breaks. (Plus, I like spending time with him. This is one of the perks of being a teacher AND a mom–breaks to spend with my child.)
On the other hand, he’s never been a good sleeper, so this should be nothing new to me, right?
He’s been taking really long naps since being home with me over this break. We’re talking 4 hours here, people. This is the child who, as an infant, barely napped for 45 minutes. The first day it happened, I, of course, napped too. And I thought it was just a fluke. And then it happened again. And again. And again. And then on Christmas Eve he didn’t take a nap at all.
Where we’ve probably been screwing up is that, since he doesn’t seem tired, we’ve pushed his bedtime back to accommodate whatever we’ve had going on that night. (Our Christmas party, Christmas Eve Eve, New Year’s Eve…and that night we went to Target this week…)
On Monday, he took a “short” (read: normal) nap and then slept all night long.
So now with these 4 hour naps, instead of them just being naps, they are his nighttime sleep and he’s all confused when he goes to bed at night.
We put him to bed and within an hour he’s moaning out or crying or fussing and not settling back down. So we go in to him (because y’all know how I feel about CIO, right?) and then he’s asleep the second he hits our shoulder. And we put him back down, and half an hour later, he’s moaning again.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
By the third or fourth time through this cycle, he’s asleep and we’re good until his normal 3:00a.m. wake-up (which I hope to eradicate in 2011…though I don’t know how). Last night, however, he was up every half hour to an hour, first because of stupid, stupid neighbors shooting fireworks in our subdivision and then because of God-only-knows-what.
We tried rotating who got up to go soothe him, but it was clear that nothing was working and we were all just getting really frustrated with one another. At one point, I did the only thing I knew how to do.
I turned off the monitor.
Our house is small. And I have a raging case of Mom Guilt when it comes to the fact that HE. KNOWS. ME. and I am his “lovey.” So turning off the monitor didn’t help.
We were all up and going zombie-d at 6:00 a.m. and I might’ve said something along the lines of how I already hate this year on Facebook and Twitter. (And that I had a toddler for sale. But that was just a joke. Sort of.)
Today, we woke him up after only 3 hours of napping. (The original plan was 2.5 hours, but Dan and I needed some sleep, too.) And we made sure to get him to bed at his usual time. (And the time between that nap and his bedtime? Kind of brutal at spots.)
So far? He’s already woken up twice, which is an improvement over the four times he’d already woken up last night, but is still not great.
We’re ready for the long-haul tonight because what else can we do? If you have any magic-toddler-sleep-tricks up your sleeve, you better start spilling. I’m going back to work in one day and I’m thinking I’ll need some sleep before I have to drive a car again. Or deal with people.
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