Last weekend I realized I have not slept through the night in over a year. Nathan raised an eyebrow and questioned my math, "Arabella is not even a year old." I reminded him that in the last month of pregnancy, I had to get up to go to the bathroom every night. He quickly jumped on board my pity party and validated my grumpiness. He tried to empathize and say neither had he slept through the night in that long. Now, I know he is a light sleeper and wakes easily when he's here. And I also recognize that he stays at his new job very late, often past midnight. However, I had to pursue it a little further. "You didn't sleep the whole night through since you've been staying at the Hilton in Indianapolis?"
"Well....uh...I have to get up and go to the bathroom..."
"Oh. I didn't realize you didn't sleep well there. What about when you went to Asia?"
"No, I uh had jetlag and my sleep schedule was completely off."
"Oh right. Well, what about when you went to San Diego."
After a wide, moony grin wiped across his face, he said, "Yes. I did sleep very well there. It was pretty great."
"Must be nice."
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| She could sleep in Italy |
The thing is Bella used to be my sleeper. She took naps easily and slept soundly. She would go to sleep in the evening and only wake once in the middle of the night and then once really early in the morning. I felt like the Lord was finally blessing me with a child who liked to sleep as much as I do. However, she is like her brothers now. She no longer needs sleep. Or rather wants it. She is clearly growing out of her morning nap, just like her brothers did. Neither of them took two naps much past the 12 month old mark. Currently, I'm lucky if she sleeps 45 minutes in the morning. Her afternoon naps can still be considerable, if we can get her to sit still long enough. Also just like her brothers, she has given up the pacifier. All three of them reached a point where they would yank it out of their mouth, or my hand if they saw it coming, and throw it to the other side of the room. They would look at me with contempt as if to say "DON'T STICK THAT THING IN MY MOUTH AGAIN!" While it's nice to not have them need a pacifier any more, the flip side is that all three are then inconsolable.
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| Me by Thursday morning |
The worst has been this last week; even worse than her newborn weeks, . She has awakened about 4 times a night. I don't know if she's teething. I don't know if her belly is hurting her. I don't know if she's hungry. What I do know is I can't go much longer living like this. I can barely function, especially parenting alone for most of the week. The poor boys must think I've lost my mind and I kind of feel like I must look similar to Cruella DeVille. Naturally, my patience is thin and my temper is quick. I have been praying about it and I hope God will resolve this problem easily and painlessly. Did you just laugh?
And now, let me tell you about some poor losers. UK just suffered a heartbreaking loss to UNC. Carter could not eat dinner because he was lamenting. He took it really hard. Will tried to make him feel better and encourage him. But nothing worked. Then Carter sat bolt upright, he ran to the supply shelf and returned with a light blue sheet of paper. He wrote UNC on it. Then he violently crumpled it up and said "THIS IS NORTH CAROLINA!"
Then he ripped it.
He chewed it up and spit it out.
Then he threw it out into the snow.
It's awaiting to be run over with the car, so he made another one.
The stabbed it with needles. They punched it and jumped on it.
(Notice the pronoun has changed - that's because his dad and brother joined in on the satisfying action)
Then they microwaved it. Stuck it in the freezer. Then...unbeknownst to others in the house, he threw it in the toiled at urinated on it. Now I think they are going to flush it. At least, I hope that is the plan.
Just be glad it wasn't Tennessee. I'm sure armed weapons and worse bodily functions would have been involved.
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Post Script: The night after posting this, Arabella slept for 6 uninterrupted hours for the first time in her life. After this mother had that much sleep, she was full of frenetic energy the next morning, and speculated this must be what one feels like after 3 or 4 espressos. But first, she praised the gracious Lord - seriously. Thank you, Lord!
