I feel so good.
Yesterday, I was in a very bad place. A dark place. Seriously.
Today is so much better.
Sleep is so important.
I always swore I'd never be a Mom who let herself get sleep deprived. Or at least not after the baby was 6-9 months old. But, I did. I fell into a vicious cycle. Somehow, at 3 am, it seemed easier to go grab the baby and nurse her really quickly than to let the baby cry for a little while. I hadn't had a night of unbroken sleep for sooooo long. It's hard to be rational after a while. It always seemed like I needed to get her.
T (15 months) is not a baby really--well, she is, but, she's old enough to sleep through the night. After a full night of sleep, I feel resolved to get the little girls sleeping in their own spaces all night. Yesterday, I was too tired to believe that was possible. Now, after a full night of sleep, I feel it is.
Here's one thing we are doing to encourage K (2.5) to stay in her bed. It's the Princess Sticker Reward Game. We made it up for her. The rules are simple. If she doesn't wake me up in the night, she gets a princess sticker. We put it on a piece of a paper. When she gets 6 princess stickers, we get to go to the Mue-z-EM. Rinse, repeat.
N (4 and 3/4s) made a stop sign for our door to remind K to stay in her room. It says all of the days of the week on it. (It's hard to read, but she did write them all.)
The Thankful part
I'm thankful for MWH.
I am so thankful for my wonderful friend (DM) who talked to me and calmed me down while I cried in my office. (I can't wait to do a spa day!)
I'm so thankful for all my little girls, even if they don't let me sleep.
I am thankful for Mary Poppins (our nanny).
I am thankful my Mom is getting stronger.
I am thankful that everyone else in the family is relatively healthy.
I am thankful that I get to watch N (4 and 3/4s) learn to read and write. She was helpful today and wrote my grocery list for our Thanksgiving trek to the store.
(It says, Banana, Yo-Baby, Pepper, lime, onion, tortilla, mac-n-cheese, fajitas (what we're eating tomorrow, I didn't "buy" actual fajitas, but we're eating them so N thought they should be on the list), parmesan, mayo, apple, vanilla (ice cream).)
That is so cool! She wrote a whole grocery list. She sounded out banana ALL BY HERSELF! She had a hard time with onion.
One more cute thing, just because, you know, the sun is shining and the birds are singing... (and because I downloaded my camera).
T and K playing with their kitchen.
I have much to be thankful for.
I can't believe how important sleep is. It is so important.
3 comments:
Hooray! I'm so thankful!!! Have a great Thanksgiving!!!
Love,
DM
Until H & K were 11 months old they slept in our bed. At the time it seemed like the only way to have them happy. Finally I realised that if we didn't change something I'd never get enough sleep to feel human. We put them in cots and did the cry it out thing. I hated it. It worked. If I had been more human at the time I might have managed something less black and white.
Gradually over nearly two years we have managed to work out something in between but I still have a fear that if we let them in our bed they, well actually K (my limpet), will _never_ go back to her own.
The problem with the in between is that the rules aren't clear to anyone and so we are forever negotiating and I don't negotiate well at 3am.
At the moment mostly they don't get upset every night and the nights they do it doesn't last tooooo long and I get to sleep through most nights when they aren't sick. I'd still like it to be easier.
Ok that stop sign N made was so cute and I thought so sweet and sooo creative! I just think it's so cute she came up with a creative way to help her little sis. :-)
Post a Comment