By far the most stressful part of the day is putting the boys to sleep. The rest of the day I'm fine. I am calm and happy and I feel that I do a pretty good job juggling activities and errands and fun stuff for Nick to do. But no matter how happy and calm and at peace with the world I am when I put the boys to bed, by the time they are actually both asleep I can feel the frustration crawling under my skin, and I know I'm about to spontaneously combust.
Nick usually goes upstairs peacefully enough, although he's sad about it. And I can get him into the bed. I read stories while I feed Nathan, and that's a challenge because I don't have a free hand to turn the pages, or even to hold the book, and Nick is often very squirmy, rolling around, digging under the covers, poking Nate in the head...
And then, once I turn the light out, the true test begins. Nick hops out of bed. He turns on the light. He climbs over the baby gate. He climbs into the crib. If Nathan's asleep, he often get a rude awakening as Nick falls on top of him in the crib. If I leave the room I am on edge because I don't want Nate to wake up or Nick to hurt himself, which he does a lot by falling off the rocking chair or the bed. I've taken to sitting and reading as the boys fall asleep, but Nick things this is funny. Last night he would see how far he had to dangle a limb out of the bed before I would tell him to get back to bed. He would stand up in bed and just LOOK at me. He would rush to turn on the light and then rush back to bed. He was being a little devil. A pain. A two-year-old.
I don't know what to do about it. I get upset no matter what I do. I keep taking Nate out of the room, but I feel bad because I feel that Nate should be allowed to learn to sleep in his crib before I have to have fights with HIM about it...
ANd last night, after one final good-night, I closed the door and kept my teeth clenched in anticipation of some noise or thump or crying... and nothing happened. ANd when I finally went in to check on them the light were all on, and Nick wasn't in his bed. He was in the brib, with Nate. And they were both asleep.
When Nate gets to the point where he can roll over easily and sit up, I'm just going to let them share a bed.
2 comments:
This is the one of the hardest stages (every stage is hard!). Nick is such a go-go-go boy. He's always up, over, under, move, move, move. Good thing he expends all that energy or he might vibrate apart!
I guess he wants what was his before -- the crib & maybe to be the baby for a little bit longer.
There isn't anything you can do except put him to bed, turn out the light & leave. And keep doing it until he finally falls asleep. Of course, that is so much easier said than done especially when you are exhausted yourself.
You are doing everything you can & it will all be okay...eventually. You can sleep when they both go off to school.
This is the one of the hardest stages (every stage is hard!). Nick is such a go-go-go boy. He's always up, over, under, move, move, move. Good thing he expends all that energy or he might vibrate apart!
I guess he wants what was his before -- the crib & maybe to be the baby for a little bit longer.
There isn't anything you can do except put him to bed, turn out the light & leave. And keep doing it until he finally falls asleep. Of course, that is so much easier said than done especially when you are exhausted yourself.
You are doing everything you can & it will all be okay...eventually. You can sleep when they both go off to school.
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