Weekend Happenings

We had a pretty great weekend at our house. Other than the super loud thunderstorm waking up the ENTIRE house during the wee hours of Saturday morning and my husband and I attempting to go to Target smack dab in the middle of the crazy storm and sideways rain (I was so freaked out we turned around), our weekend was the perfect combo of productive and lazy. We did some nursery shopping. We went out to eat at a slow food restaurant Saturday night for the first time in forever. We prepared another freezer meal. And we took naps! Such a blessing!

Just about the only thing that almost left me "unglued" over the weekend was this sweet baby.

Ohhh I am about ready to have a sleep study performed on my precious second born. He is exhausting me when it comes to his crazy sleeping habits lately. I know it's only a phase (or at least I'm hoping that's all it is) and I know it could be worse... we are thankfully getting to sleep almost all night, but oh my gracious am I tired... sleepy tired and frustrated tired.

For some reason bedtime has become a major nightly challenge. No idea why, but it has. We've tried all sorts of different strategies with very little success. We did have 2 good nights in a row last week and we had a good night last night, but other than that, every single night has been CRAZY, plus frustrating and patience-testing.

Our routine leading up to bedtime is very calm, quiet, and relaxing... Terrell reads to Garrison in the living room while I read to Austin in the big boy room. This takes several minutes and is usually very peaceful and "sleep-inviting". Then Garrison comes to bed and we say prayers together and maybe sing a song and have a little talking time... all while I'm in the room with them. Normal, calming, bedtime things... except they must not be very calming because this is when things totally fall apart. Austin just goes WILD. He rolls all over the bed. He kicks his feet in excitement. He jumps around. He's all over me. He's all over the bed. He's just magically wound up and not a single bit tired or sleepy.

So bedtime takes awhile most nights. So there's that.

Then, there's the issue of sleeping all night. Since he got sick with his ear infections, my sweet almost middle has not been sleeping through the night consistently. Sometimes he wakes up crying for a minute but then he stops without us ever having to get up. Most of the time however he wakes up crying and calling for us and is just pitiful until one of us goes in to rub his back and help him settle down again. Usually I send Terrell in for these times. 1. Because Terrell falls back asleep the second his head hits the pillow while I'm pretty much awake after getting up, and 2. Terrell can typically get in and out with no issues while Austin doesn't want me to leave if I go in. So it isn't too bad during the night, just enough to be frustrating after the bedtime battle that occurs almost nightly.

While we are super thankful these are the only issues we have, it does make me concerned for him spending the night away from home this weekend, spending the night without mama and daddy while we're at the hospital, and his sleep habits after we get Layton home. Especially since we had a major meltdown occur during the middle of the night on Saturday/Sunday in which he was totally inconsolable without me. He wanted mama and only mama. I feel like all kids have their mama is the only person who can make me better moments, but this was taken to a whole a new level. I seriously hope we didn't wake the neighbors.

The crazy thing about all of these bedtime/sleep issues we're having is that naptime is almost totally perfect. Naptime goes smoothly and without issue almost every single day. Naptime is easy and predictable. At least that's going great I guess! And we're especially thankful for a really smooth bedtime last night! And that this is just a phase!

It's really just more frustrating than anything, and I think the timing has a lot to do with it too. I'm already tired and uncomfortable so wrestling with my 2 year old at bedtime or waking up with him during the night just isn't a lot of fun. I'm not trying to vent or complain because I know how blessed I am, I just wanted to record it for documentation/this is part of life right now purposes. I know we'll (or he'll) figure it out sooner or later. That's the great thing about the second born.. you've been through most of it with your firstborn and you know it gets better and easier eventually.

Despite my almost "unglued" moments (I'm reading that book right now by the way and it is wonderful), we had a great weekend!

*We didn't do these over the weekend but I still wanted to share...

I found these adorable printables over at Every Day Cheer and just had to do them with the boys. Garrison needed a little prompting or suggestions for a few and I did Austin's myself based on his favorites and highlights. I'm going to put them with their school stuff I'm saving for now. If I can do one every year I might make them into a little a book or something. For now though they're just going to be put away with other fun things they've made that I'm saving. I thought they were precious and I know they'll be even more special to me years from now. =)

That's all for now. Happy Monday!