So Sleepy
I went to bed late last night. My college basketball team was playing in a tournament game in Alaska that tipped off close to midnight my time, and I stayed up way too long listening to the radio, waiting for them to cut into that 20-point deficit at any minute. The lack of sleep is no problem for me; I used to do it all the time in college while writing papers/watching movies.
Unfortunately I’m not a college student anymore; I’m a parent who’s had all of his minimal sleep tolerance sapped by raising three children through the midnight-feeding phase. I may not replenish my sleep reserves until all three children hit the make-their-own-breakfast-so-daddy-can-sleep-in phase. Still, I went to sleep early enough that I should be functional in the morning as long as I could have a good night’s sleep highlighted by the children sleeping all night long as they always do.
Any parent reading this should know what happened overnight. Children never do what you need them to do when you need them to do it, no matter how adept they’ve proven to be. Need your child to watch her favorite video while you throw something together for that potluck in three hours you forgot about? She’ll immediately declare the oven to be the Most Fascinating Object in the Universe. Want your chatterbox child to show off his new words at Thanksgiving for Aunt Frieda who swears you don’t know what you’re doing with him? He’ll silently stare at the ground until Auntie leaves. Need to run into the store quick? Hello tantrum.
Abbie woke up screaming at 1:45am. This wasn’t the “I’m mad I’m awake” scream, but the “I’m in horrible agony” scream. I rolled from bed as quickly as my deep slumber would allow, and walked into her room. She was standing next to her bed, naked from the waist down, and still screaming. She had removed her pants and diaper at some point, though she must have run around the room extensively before doing so because the diaper was still plenty wet. She then fell asleep in bed, of course soaked the bed in the night, and woke up cold, damp, and naked. She’s done this before and had the decency to sleep until morning anyway, so I don’t know why last night was different, but there I was with a screaming child to dress and wet bedding to change while hopefully keeping her roommate brothers asleep.
Ian was awake and staring at me over his crib railing before I could attach both of Abbie’s diaper straps. In a minute he was bouncing in his crib and screaming at me to pick him up. I ignored him while fumbling in the dark for new Abbie pajamas. She’d done an extraordinary job of emptying her dresser onto the floor before going to sleep, and I couldn’t find her one clean pair of pajamas through the mounds of clothes strewn about the floor. When I realized Tory was also asleep and screaming to be picked up, I gave up and turned on the light.
I finished dressing Abbie and started changing her bedding. By this time the boys weren’t screaming at me, but screaming at each other for entertainment. They thought our late night jam session was hilarious.
As soon as her bed was made, Abbie crawled in and curled up, essentially dismissing me along with my services. The boys seemed pretty wound up, but I left them to hopefully squawk themselves to sleep. I listened for a minute to make sure they wouldn’t need intervention from me, and checked the outcome of my game while waiting. They only lost by 18!
Unfortunately I’m not a college student anymore; I’m a parent who’s had all of his minimal sleep tolerance sapped by raising three children through the midnight-feeding phase. I may not replenish my sleep reserves until all three children hit the make-their-own-breakfast-so-daddy-can-sleep-in phase. Still, I went to sleep early enough that I should be functional in the morning as long as I could have a good night’s sleep highlighted by the children sleeping all night long as they always do.
Any parent reading this should know what happened overnight. Children never do what you need them to do when you need them to do it, no matter how adept they’ve proven to be. Need your child to watch her favorite video while you throw something together for that potluck in three hours you forgot about? She’ll immediately declare the oven to be the Most Fascinating Object in the Universe. Want your chatterbox child to show off his new words at Thanksgiving for Aunt Frieda who swears you don’t know what you’re doing with him? He’ll silently stare at the ground until Auntie leaves. Need to run into the store quick? Hello tantrum.
Abbie woke up screaming at 1:45am. This wasn’t the “I’m mad I’m awake” scream, but the “I’m in horrible agony” scream. I rolled from bed as quickly as my deep slumber would allow, and walked into her room. She was standing next to her bed, naked from the waist down, and still screaming. She had removed her pants and diaper at some point, though she must have run around the room extensively before doing so because the diaper was still plenty wet. She then fell asleep in bed, of course soaked the bed in the night, and woke up cold, damp, and naked. She’s done this before and had the decency to sleep until morning anyway, so I don’t know why last night was different, but there I was with a screaming child to dress and wet bedding to change while hopefully keeping her roommate brothers asleep.
Ian was awake and staring at me over his crib railing before I could attach both of Abbie’s diaper straps. In a minute he was bouncing in his crib and screaming at me to pick him up. I ignored him while fumbling in the dark for new Abbie pajamas. She’d done an extraordinary job of emptying her dresser onto the floor before going to sleep, and I couldn’t find her one clean pair of pajamas through the mounds of clothes strewn about the floor. When I realized Tory was also asleep and screaming to be picked up, I gave up and turned on the light.
I finished dressing Abbie and started changing her bedding. By this time the boys weren’t screaming at me, but screaming at each other for entertainment. They thought our late night jam session was hilarious.
As soon as her bed was made, Abbie crawled in and curled up, essentially dismissing me along with my services. The boys seemed pretty wound up, but I left them to hopefully squawk themselves to sleep. I listened for a minute to make sure they wouldn’t need intervention from me, and checked the outcome of my game while waiting. They only lost by 18!
posted by Matt at
11:22 PM
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