Monday, September 29, 2008

Nanny wanted, graveyard shift

I now fully understand the term "graveyard shift". I feel like that's where I'm headed if this continues.
Our children do not sleep. We had a four day weekend this weekend. The best night was the night Stephanie woke up every two hours. Two other nights, they took turns waking up every hour. Last night was the prize-winner. Ellie spent the first 45 minutes after we put her to bed screaming bloody-murder to get us to keep coming back for water, potty, hugs, etc...and waking up her sister too, of course. After that, Stephanie was awake for almost an hour. It kept up in this lovely fashion so that by midnight, we had gone in their room for one or the other (or both) six times. After that, we stopped counting, moved Stephanie into our bed so at least one of them would be sorted out, and surrendered our sanity completely.
We just can't keep this up. Their sleep has been awful since the move began, and it doesn't really seem to get better (in fact, this weekend showed it was getting worse). We are supposed to be planning our return trip to the US for Mardi Gras, and I can't get myself to order my beads (deadline tomorrow) because the thought of doing this all again when we get there and then AGAIN when we come back here is too much for my wee brain to comprehend.
So if you know of any child-loving teenager who requires no sleep at night, please direct him or her our way. Our house is laid out so that the kids can stay up all night together in the back "wing" and the parents can get some much needed sleep. Something has got to change.

3 comments:

Karly said...

Oh sweetie...big, huge hugs. Sleep for kiddos is such a hard thing, and I can't imagine how hard it must be when there are time zones to account for that get things all messed up. I have no advice for you (I am the last person to ask for sleep advice as Sam still pretty much sleeps in our room...we are working on a push to his own room soon so I may very well be joining you in the world of no sleep) but I do have hugs, lots and lots of hugs. Thinking of you and sending night time sleepy vibes to your little ones...

Anonymous said...

I think you need a "Baby Whisperer", namely, me(me)say it faster, "me-me", (faster-"me-me"), MIMI!!!!
Honey, you and Markus have GOT to get some sleep. This is so hard for ALL of you. I suggest separating the girls at bedtime, even if it means Stephanie goes back into the adult room. Maybe consequences for Ellie if she wakes up Stephanie? What happened to the sleep author/adviser? I must agree, you should NOT go through this all TWICE for Mardi Gras, so NOT WORTH IT!!!! XXXOOO!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... I even couldn't get myself to stay asleep the other night. Of course it was mostly due to my excitement after I listening to a certain someone's voicemessage. I was also very angry with myself because I could have taken the call but I accidently left the phone on vibrate and didn't realize it was ringing - argh!! Anyway, I've got no other reasonable suggestions because I'm guessing letting them cry themselves to sleep is not an option... ;-)

As of this week we are now no longer allowed to access personal email at work because it isn't secure enough... It'll be a wonder if I'm able to stay in touch with anyone now! We'll see, maybe it will force me to write email from home more often, or at least make me check my phone is audible.

Luckily they haven't forbidden blog reading!!

Much love!!