Tuesday, December 04, 2007

sleep issues

well, you'd think by now i'd have learned, right? never EVER brag about how well your child is sleeping. it WILL come back to haunt you. for the past four nights tristan has had no night terrors and has slept soundly from 7:30pm-7:00am which is astounding for us! his 2 naps are always around 1 1/2 hours each, one at 9:30am and one at 2:30pm. yesterday he had a longer than normal morning nap (2 1/2 hours) and didn't really feel like taking an afternoon nap, so he didn't and he was the happiest little boy you ever saw until his bedtime.

pride oozed from me as i told my mom this morning how well he is doing with sleep. less than an hour after we hung up, i put tristan down for his morning nap and thought of all the wonderful things i could get done around the house while he was sleeping. i even ventured to think of a few extra things just in case his nap lasted as long as it did yesterday. 30 min after i put him to sleep, his shrill cry pierced my ears....and did not stop piercing my ears until 30 min later when i finally gave up on getting him back to sleep. i have no clue why he woke up and why he wouldn't fall back asleep. he would calm down while i was at the side of his crib, but as soon as i left the room he'd freak out. i even attempted waiting until he fell asleep to leave the room, but just when i'd think he was asleep, his eyes would fly open to see if i was still there. i finally got him up and, needless to say he was NOT a happy camper. food went flying through the air at lunchtime as he refused to eat nearly everything i put on his tray. he had 3 poopy diapers that all leaked through within an hour of each other, keeping me busy changing his AND my clothes.

then it was time to do groceries and, for once, my kid wasn't the happy little boy that everyone cooed over. he was the kid having a temper tantrum because i wouldn't let him rip my grocery list into shreds and then eat it. i ended up running out of kleenexes to keep his snotty nose from running EVERYWHERE, so he eventually had snot and tears covering most of his face as he rubbed his eyes and howled. oddly enough, once we were back in the car, he settled right down and chuckled at his friend in the mirror and played with little toys. i ended up taking the long way home just so i could calm down and breathe before unloading groceries as fast as i could while he began his snot & tearfest in the living room.

its 2pm and he is now asleep. i am not bragging about this, i am merely stating a fact. i could cry with relief. the funny thing is, i no longer feel like doing any of the wonderful things around the house that i had originally come up with. i just want to eat a big bowl of ice cream and fall asleep in front of the tv. to all you moms who have two or more little ones, i am in AWE of you. :)

5 comments:

Lee said...

you make me laugh. A category of its own, "2 or more".
You're cute.

Jenn & Wade said...

Thanks for the entertaining update and reminding me that I'm not the only one!

Anonymous said...

Well I would just like to say that having one child is the hardest. The second, third, fourth, it all just gets easier. I have four kids and I wouldn't want to go back to one. Just relax and don't worry about what you don't get done, be amazed at yourself when you do get something done.

Anonymous said...

I don't really ever remember having just one child.
You do get to the point where it just doesn't bother you anymore. Cry in your crib, don't eat lunch, eat the shopping list... whatever.


Regardless though, it seems Tristan has hated sleeping since the day he was born. And that is not "normal". Normal as in Tristan is normal, but this experience is not shared by everyone... so you get your fair share of awe too.

I thought when I quit my job to stay home with the new baby that I would have time to finish hobbies and maybe learn a second language in my spare time. hahahahaha

~Shannon

Aimee said...

I hope you ate the icecream and fell asleep in front of the tv. somedays that is just the right thing!

My friend Jena gave me some good advice after having her first child - just when you think you've got a nice routine going and things are settling down, something changes and you have to readjust all over again. This has been so helpful for me.

aimee