Go Back to Bed!

Today’s Mantra: It’s only a phase

If toddlers and babies need a minimum of 10-12 hours sleep then I am in for a shocker of a day.

Should I blame myself?

I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, taking the dogs and the double pram to the shops to pick up a couple of things for dinner (San Choy Bau has a new fan in Julian!). On the way back Julian falls asleep – for two hours.

Not wanting to disturb the peace, I leave him in the pram at the front door and move onto the next child.

Leo for some reason hates having an afternoon nap. If it’s after two I struggle, plead and finally beg him to go to sleep but it’s a rarity at the moment. He had two forty minute naps yesterday, waking at twelve thirty from his second nap. I put him down anyway.

He was quiet.

I was hopeful.

About ten minutes later I hear him talking. Then screaming. He’s hit his cheek against the cot and there’s quite the bruise. Still determined, I cuddle and re-settle leaving him chatting happily to himself. He starts making some interesting noises. Then he’s crying again. Back up to his room for a nappy change and re-settle.

An hour and fifteen minutes later I wave the white flag and bring him back down where he plays happily with me and then my family before going to bed at six pm.

Julian, who is not known for his sunny personality after a nap, drags out the “I just got up” behaviour for over an hour. When he finally snaps out of it he eats dinner with us and happily plays until my family leaves just after seven. We give him another hour before trying to put him to bed.

At half past eight my husband opens the blind in our bathroom after he’s had a shower and sees  Julian’s little face peeping back at him from under the blind in his bedroom. Daniel has another go at being the sandman.

When Daniel finally gets downstairs to put on a show for us to watch we can see his little face watching us on the couch. I swear if there was lightning and Julian’s face was illuminated it would have been like something out of a horror movie. It was creepy! The picture below is from where I was sitting on the couch last night (it was too dark to take a picture so I took the picture this morning).

When we hear him crying out for me I go up there for a while, chat to him, lie down with him and think I’ve finally settled him.

Next thing he’s in the hall crying for us.

We bring him downstairs. He watches House. Apparently it’s his favourite. It’s ten thirty and his eyes haven’t closed once. I fall asleep and when I wake up about ten minutes later he’s still watching with Daniel.

I take him to bed with me. Leo starts crying at 11pm. I wait. Leo resettles. Julian’s still awake.

Daniel comes to bed at midnight and moves Julian to his own bed. Leo wakes at 1pm. I give him milk. He then decides that five am is a perfectly reasonable wake-up time.  He chats to himself till five thirty then calls out for us…a lot. I try to resettle. Julian finally is woken by it and I give up.

Leo is back in bed by six forty am and Julian and I are awake and alert for the shambles of a day ahead.