Further Adventures in Nighttime parenting

Last night I went to bed a little later than the rest of my family. Everyone else was fast asleep. I had just laid down when Katie started screaming "Help me Mom! Help me Dad!" I jumped up to see what was wrong. I was pretty sure she was sleeping, but she was making a lot of noise and I was afraid she was going to wake the baby. Katie was laying on her bed thrashing around having a nightmare. I laid down next to her to try and sooth her but she keep screaming and crying and kicking. Finally not knowing what else to do, I went and got Steve. Steve tends to get up most of the time at night because I sleep so soundly. I figured maybe she had done this before. He went in a tried to soothe her and I must have doozed off because the next sound I heard was running feet. Thinking Katie must really be in the grips of a night terror, I jumped up in time to hear puking in the bathroom. Needless to say after the all the commotion the baby woke up while we were trying to clean the first bout of vomiting. I took the baby and went back to sleep.

This morning, I commented to Steve on all the commotion. He informed me I slept through all the best parts. After he was finally able to wake her up and calm her down, he took her into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Katie laid down on the tile and told Steve to "Just leave me here." Then after narrowly evading being puked on, (though my couch wasn't able escape), and after the second bout in the bathroom toilet, he asked her how she felt. He said she looked at him like he was an idiot and said, "Hel-lo...I threw up and I'm laying on the bathroom floor."

I guess that says it all.

Adventures in Nighttime Parenting

One of the things you don't quite get before you are a parent is how precious sleep is...yours AND your childs. Lately, Kenna has been skipping naps or sleeping for short stretches of time which brings back horrible visions of the sleep habits (or lack of them) of my oldest daughter. You know the one who never slept and cried constantly for 2 years. Luckily, while Kenna doesn't sleep much, she also doesn't cry much...as long as I am either holding her or sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HER. She is a little bit of a mama's girl. I always felt kind of bad I never had a child that prefered me to their Dad. Subconciously I must have sent many a heartfelt prayer upwards because the Lord cursed me, I mean BLESSED me with a Mama's Girl. Which brings me to the point of this post. After spending all day trying to conquer Mt. Wash-more and only getting the junk drawer cleaned and organized, (and I only accomplished this because I desperately needed a stapler and couldn't even open the drawer!), and constantly and continuely and endlessly holding Kenna I had finally had ENOUGH! I passed her to Steve, made dinner, put the kids to bed and in general tried to stay out of Kenna's line of sight. Steve put her to bed and we watched our fav show (So You Think You Can Dance, by the way) and Kenna very conviently woke up at the end and started to cry. I begged Steve to please get her back to sleep. (If I pick her up she ends up in our bed because she knows a sucker when she sees one). I brushed my teeth and went out to give Steve a kiss goodnight. Steve was cradling Kenna and rocking her while watching sports highlights. My husband is excellent at multitasking. Kenna took one look at me and then whipped her head up to look at who was holding her. After a horrified look, she started wailing. But it ended well for her. She ended up sleeping in our bed and kicked my back all night long. We enjoyed a looong night of no sleep. Yeah us!

P.S. As I write this post Kenna is clinging valiently to the chair, whining and pulling on my arm.

P.P.S. She won again. Apparently she can cry longer than I can ignore her. So after a whole day I give you 1 paragraph. Meanwhile Mt Wash-More is now a mountain range.

P.P.P.S. On another note Levi can finally use his secret zombie combat skills as his parents have joined their sleep deprived ranks. (See the post "It's Official").