more on sleeping

or maybe i have more to say about not sleeping...  the boys, mainly the two bigs, have been so difficult about sleeping at night.  you name it - going to sleep, staying asleep, sleeping in their beds, getting up too early - they are doing it.  we have even gotten into a vicious cycle where maddux is so tired that he falls asleep during the day and then he doesn't want to go to sleep at bedtime because he took a nap and wakes up tired the next day.

so here is how a typical night goes with the boys.  matt gets them ready for bed and reads to them while i nurse manning.  once manning is down, i go in to sing to the boys.  this is usually when the problems begin.  maddux doesn't want me to stop singing so he cries.  mason usually decides that he is scared and/or wants a drink.  when one of them leaves the room, the other one wants to come too.  mostly the problem is maddux.  i think a lot of it is more separation anxiety-like than stalling for bedtime. although he has started to ask to go to the bathroom as a stall tactic just like the other two did when they first trained.  maddux is so disruptive some nights that mason had even started getting into madelyn's bed to sleep in the night.

i would say that for the past week we have had at least one, if not both boys, in our bed at some point in the night.  we make them go to sleep in their own rooms but aren't the best about taking them back to their rooms during the night.  mainly because matt sleeps so heavy that he doesn't wake up when they come in so they just lay down next to him and that i am just too tired to fight them back to bed.  we have made them sleep with blankets on the floor.  and some nights i am resolved to put them back in their own beds and will take them back over and over.

we have made some progress in the past few nights because i have offered maddux a treat if he doesn't come out of his room all night.  i was totally shocked that it worked in getting him to stay in his bed without crying when i say good night.  however, it has not kept him in his room all night either.  what is happening now is that they are both coming in our room between 4 and 5am.  some days mason never goes back to sleep and is begging for breakfast.  it has been more difficult to get him to go back to bed because manning has suddenly decided that 5:30 or 6am is the best time of day to wake up.

we are hoping that they are in a growth spurt, just feeling poorly from their current colds or some other short term situation.

funny enough, i haven't been all too tired from the current arrangements.  i think that my body is just conditioned to getting very little sleep.  for that i am thankful!  love.