I thought as the time went, that the child becomes easier in the sleep realm. Makenna has always been a good sleeper and I've decided to praise God that I have a good sleeper rather than a good eater. Although I stress over the latter, I definitely have fits on the former when my sleep is disturbed.
I didn't realize until marriage that I was a light sleeper and now throw a child in the mix and I swear that sleep is a fleeting fad. But...I really have had it good...until recently. For some unknown reason, and with the help of two little legs, my little one takes it upon herself to come to our room at all hours of the night. Most trips are due to the blanket "falling off". We have tried multiple attempts to show her that she is big enough to pull them back on but she insists that she can't. In my fog I just go and put it back on her so we can end the misery and hopefully get back to sleep. We have had a couple of instances where I swear I've heard her come in to the room but then heard nothing after. With a little bit of looking we've found her laying down next to our bed, once on daddy's side, and once on mine. Not sure if she was sleep-walking or just trying to get a little closer without disturbing us, but it's a bit freaky to find your child laying on the floor next to you not saying anything.
And again, I'm so very grateful that once potty-training kicked-in, that there have been no accidents at night (hear me knocking on wood as I type this). What it does mean though, that at times, I have heard noises where she gets herself to the bathroom, which I'm elated about but still need to check-up on, or she decides that mommy & daddy's bathroom is the place to go. In making this choice of our bathroom, all lights must come on, thus really throwing a wrench into my ability to sleep.
A couple of weeks ago she had to go "poo-poo" on one of her late night excursions, and promptly got herself up and went into her bathroom. After waiting and hoping that Chris heard her rustling, I got up to investigate. I then waited, and waited (keep adding the "waited" for a long time,) until I convinced her that maybe she didn't really have to go, and let's try in the morning when normal people are up to go. She finally relented, and as I looked at the nice red mark around her legs from sitting so long, figured that she was probably going numb and that's what caused her to acquiesce.
I don't think it was even an half-hour later when I heard the noise again, and the whole process started again. I again was the one who took it upon myself (since my "better-half" was snoring away, or at least pretending to snore,) and went upstairs. This time the wait was unbearable. I laid my tired body in front of the bathroom door praying to God to give her relief, and thus me relief. After about 20 minutes of being completely uncomfortable, I went downstairs in the living room, onto the recliner, where I could still monitor her via yelling. I think we finally had success but really, I don't remember.
Why bring this all up after this time? Well, it happened again last night. I was the "lone" ranger as daddy is out of town, and I dragged myself out of bed when I heard the first feet hit the floor out of her bed, figuring it was a blanket catastrophe. Worse, it was another "poo-poo" episode and I was in for the Anna Karenina unabridged version of waiting. I was able to read the Cliff notes the first time in that I got her, after about 15 minutes, to realize it just wasn't going to happen and sleep was a better alternative.
But not even a half-hour later, at least in my mind it was that short but I really have no way of knowing as I refuse to look at clocks during these times as it makes me completely anxious, we were back to the potty situation but this time, I didn't hear her and she made it all the way to my room and proceeded to turn on all lights and sit on the potty for who knows how long but it was long! I figured it was a better alternative to have her downstairs as I could yell at her from my bed when I would wake up out of my stupor every 10 minutes. Plus add in some pleading to just wait until morning or praying again to God to end this misery for us both. She finally went and a chorus of hallelujah went out from my lips. But the dreaded, "No, I have more poo-poo's" ensued along another round of long waiting. When it was finally all done, I did look at the clock and it was 4:15am. Just my luck. When we put her back into her bed, I could actually see that it was getting light out and my anxious tendencies kicked in.
I lay awake in bed thinking, "I should just get up and get things done." I start running in my mind all the things that need to be done for the day, mostly morning routine stuff, but also extra stuff that I'd like to get done either in the morning or during the day. I start slowly counting backwards from 100 and occasionally lose my place but realize and continue on. That wasn't working. I did finally fall asleep but prayed really hard that I would have patience come the morning as I knew me without sleep, enough sleep, goes two ways. I'm either too tired to care (which ends up being a good thing) or I'm a cranky monster (not a good thing). Well, it was mostly the latter, unfortunately for Makenna. It wasn't as bad as it has been other mornings but we got through it. Now if I can just get through the rest of my day and be too tired to care...then we're doing good!
