Monday, August 9, 2010

Mommy is tired.

The hardest part of having a baby, to me, has always been sleep.  Trying to get them to sleep, keeping them asleep and then functioning yourself without nearly enough sleep.

For awhile now my girls have been sleeping great.  Going to bed fine, sleeping all night, sleeping until 7:30 or even 8am.  Yep. 

But about a month ago, Charlotte started having some issues and it’s been downhill with her ever since. She seems to be having a lot of nightmares, and after she has one she just will NOT go back to sleep.  Or let me leave her room.  Even the nights she doesn’t have a nightmare, she still is nervous and panicky and if she wakes up will be almost impossible to get back to sleep.  When she is asleep, i can’t sleep, i lay in bed staring at her on the monitor, watching her like she’s a ticking time bomb, just waiting…. waiting…. waiting….

I’m tired.  As I tell Charlotte every single night.  Mommy is TIRED. 

I am a disaster when I’m tired.  I have no patience, i have no motivation, i have no nothing.  Even my sense of humor seems to disappear.  I’m starting to consider slipping some Benadryl into Lala’s nightly cup of milk.  (Not really, of course.  Okay maybe.  No not really.  Sort of.)

My gigantic kids are still in cribs, and Katie is still sleeping in hers fine, but we decided to try them in toddler beds and see if that helps.  So this weekend, we’ll be setting them lose at night in their own little beds and seeing if that helps Charlotte.  God help me.  Seriously, God, please, help me. I’m dreading this. 

I love the beds we bought them, but I am so sad to see the cribs go.  It’s like the last piece of babyhood we have left.  The last thing we once had three of.  Those three white cribs, all lined up waiting for their tiny owners to come sleep in them.  I can’t believe that part of our lives is over.  It went so fast.  I am absolutely crazy about my smart, funny, sweet almost three year olds.  But  I miss my babies, all three of them.

10 comments:

Our life is a bowl of Barry's said...

so sorry!! It's a known sleep issue when they are little but oh so frustrating when it happens and they are in such a great schedule!! Perhaps the beds will be *it* for her. Any chance she is suffering from night terrors? I know you are......

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, they're gorgeous! And so tan too :)

Hope you get some sleep soon, mama.

Anonymous said...

Your girls are adorable. Good luck with the transition from crib to bed. I hope the sleep issues resolve soon!

Christine said...

When we were having some sleep issues our doctor recommended trying melatonin, which you can get at health food and vitamin stores. The problem went away before we got around to it so I don't have any personal experience but you might ask your pediatrician about it. Maybe it would help regulate her sleep cycles again. Good luck! I know it is so hard to function when you're not getting enough sleep.

Anonymous said...

try fillign a spray bottle of water with just a touch of water in it and use it to spray the room with nightmare potion so that she doesn't have nightmares. And when she wakes up if she is scared she can respray ... a little water won't hurt the room but the emotional impact and control she will feel is huge. Having no sleep SUCKS! Your girls are BEAUTIFUL and I can totally see Jack living through them and sharing their experiences.

Jessica said...

We are having sleep issues with one of my surviving triplets too and are moving to beds within the week unless things get miraculously better. Hopefully more sleep, not less, is in the future for both of us! Good luck!

Emily said...

My daughter is almost the exact same age as your girls and the same thing happened here too. She has been a great sleeper with no issues and then about three weeks ago, that all changed. We thought she was probably ready to get out of her crib too. So we put it up (I know...sniff sniff) and now she's in a toddler bed. It took about a week for her to get used to it and we had to put her back in bed a lot. But now she's back to sleeping great again...just waking up a little earlier than I'd like.
Good luck! I'm sure it will go great!

Maria said...

We do "sweet dreams spray" (perfume) before bed. We tell each girl sweet dreams and spray one pray over each of them. They are 4,5 and 7 and it still works. We tell them it will send all the good dreams in and all the bad ones out, and if they wake up in the night, they ask for a second spray and go back to sleep. Good luck!

Linda said...

Megan, that is exactly how our sleep problems with Amelia started too. She seemed to have a nightmare or something, and it was downhill from there. I feel your pain!

Rebecca Nixie said...

My girls fortunately didn't have any sleep issues like that; instead my youngest suffers from VERY painful growing pains in her shins. I am one who needs my sleep too, so I can kind of feel your pain. I hope the beds work for her and you. I would also talk to your ped about the melatonin and see if that helps!! What great ideas these other moms have!! I love the "nightmare potion" and "sweet dream spray" ideas. I hope you find some solutions soon!!! They are just gorgeous!!