We’re pretty lucky to have two kids who are decent sleepers, but every once in a while they decide to toss that precious life skill out the window, leaving us all bleary-eyed the next morning.
This upsetting disruption of the sleep schedule occurred one night early into the workweek this past week. Lucy is 3-years-old and suddenly her burgeoning imagination is starting affect her sleep patterns. She has had a few nightmares lately (like the time she woke up crying, “There is a singing monster under my bed!”) but more often, her mind starts running wild when she’s trying to fall asleep.
So last Tuesday night, Lucy was certain that the peepers outside were actually birds trying to get inside the house. Then a helicopter flew by overhead and the sound frightened her. Basically, we put her to bed by 8 p.m., but we both made many trips to her room for extra visits to the bathroom, cups of water and snuggles before she finally exhausted herself and fell asleep shortly before 10 p.m.
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Isaac, on the other hand, decided to have some issue of his own that night that we just couldn’t pinpoint. He drank a couple bottles during the night – growth spurt? He was doing a lot of drooling and seemed inconsolable – teething? Whatever it was, he wasn’t saying, which is something his older sister has over him, at nearly 12 months old. By the time he fell solidly asleep on his own in his crib, it was after 4 a.m., making my 5:45 alarm feel particularly sadistic.
Needless to say, we were all pretty grumpy Wednesday morning. Luckily, it seems like it was just a one-off nightmarish night, knock on wood. As I write this, both kids are sleeping peacefully upstairs. I’m not going to take it for granted tonight.
