Sleep

Artimus turned 13 months five days ago. Even though she has only been walking for a little over a month, I can' t remember the days when she was not walking. I wish I took more pictures. But then I was too busy keeping up with two kids and making sure they are alive and not too injured before they finally fall asleep. I can't help but think that my poor memory of even the most immediate milestones in their lives is caused by a lack of good sleep. Artimus and I have been sleeping together since her first day of life. It was great to feel her breath and be able to keep her warm every night. No regrets for that at all. But two months ago, Ethan got a special need to be back in the same bed with mommy every night. Sleeping with one is okay. Sleeping with two somehow more than doubled the stress. Perhaps I wake up twice as frequently? I can't even remember that when I wake up in the morning. I just know that I woke up many times during the night to tend to my prince and princess. Then to add to this misery, somehow in the last week our routine doesn't put them in bed until 10:00 or 10:15 so they have not been falling asleep until about 11:00. That 45 minutes to 1 hour is no joke. I think it is torture to the highest degree kids can put their parent through. For some reason, Artimus and Ethan doesn't react quickly to darkness. Rather, they continue to laugh and to engage in other physical acts that provoke me, including poking, pinching, biting, kicking, kissing, hugging, screaming etc etc. They just have so much fun . . . until I threaten to get up and leave the room, then they calm down a bit. This has been going on for a week. I am beyond exhaustion.

Tonight, I reiterated the bedtime routine to my comrade in arms - JK- who is not always next to me in battles. This is particularly true when Artimus' crying begins, or Ethan hurts his feelings with "NO DADDY" for everything. (This is something Ethan loved to say after JK traveled out of town for work for two nights.) JK was dead tired, for some reason, and had a hard time keeping this simple routine I wrote out for him just two hours before. So the battle was one that I fought alone tonight. Ethan fell asleep at about 10:15 and Artimus fell asleep at about 10:45 pm, after an unexpected short nap from 9:15 to 9:45 pm. All in all, this was about a 45 minutes improvement from the previous nights when Ethan fell asleep at 11:15 pm and Artimus fell asleep at about 11:45 pm.

This sleeping battle will have to wage on and until I win, we all lose because neither Artimus nor Ethan are getting enough sleep for their age. I kept reading that sleep affect a kid's ability to learn and retain information. So I applaud my friends who had early on gathered up all their strength and had kept up a good sleeping routine. It is never too late to start improving ones life so this time, I must persist in moving them off my bed and into their own. The challenge is to help them feel secure enough to fall asleep. I guess it will have to be work on my part as well as theirs because sleeping alone is part of growing up.

I hope to report good news in a few days . . . I mean a few months.

JW