I work in a pharmacy and on the weekdays there are one of three shifts I can get: 9-6, 10-7, or 12-9. When I get of at 9 I'm rarely in bed before midnight and the rest of the nights it is usually 11:30 to midnight that I'm in bed.
This week for some reason my son has been wanting to be awake and playing from midnight to 2am. Last night he was asleep at midnight showing no signs of waking up. Just as I'm getting ready to get in bed so I can work at 9 this morning my youngest daughter who will be 4 in a few months decides she wants to "help" with the baby by waking him up and playing with him. Not 5 minutes after she wakes him up she's asleep. Normally I don't have a problem getting my daughter to sleep but this week has been weird for her too. I wish I could put her in a room and close the door but for now she shares a room (and a bed) with me so I really can't do that.
So then my son was up until after 1am playing (he also shares a room with me but he has his own crib at the foot of my bed). Finally he went back to sleep and as I'm getting into bed my daughter starts crying and screaming. She was asleep while she was doing this and it took me forever to wake her up. When I finally did she told me that she had a bad dream. I rubbed her back and she calmed down and went back to sleep. Again, I'm just getting my head on the pillow and my son wakes up again wanting to eat.
I feed him and he goes right back to sleep and back in his crib. I decide I'm thirsty and get a drink and again getting back in bed. I'm at least able to close my eyes this time and my daughter starts screaming again. It takes a while to wake her up, she says she had a bad dream again, I calm her down again. I look at the clock and it is after 3. I close my eyes and calculate how many hours of sleep I'm going to get. I decide to bump the alarm back 10 minutes for a little extra sleep.
I feel myself drifting away and I get smacked in the face and my daughter starts screaming again. This time she won't calm down, she's wide awake and she won't tell me what is wrong. She throws herself off the bed, starts running around screaming, throwing herself down and for some odd reason hitting herself on the forehead. No matter what I say or do she won't stop and I'm exhausted. This goes on until after 4 when she finally tells me she's thirsty. We get her a drink and get back in bed. She's awake and doesn't want to go back to sleep so I turn on the tv hoping that something boring will put her to sleep. The only thing on at 430 am is the news reruns and infomercials so it really wasn't hard to find something boring. She's finally asleep around 5.
At 5:15 my son wakes up hungry again. I hadn't even slept but I was almost there. So I feed him and he wants to play. He laughs and wiggles and giggles and screams and smiles. But only if he's right next to me, if I move he cries. I wish he would do this during the day, for some reason he only does it after midnight. Finally at 7 he was showing signs of being tired and was asleep at 7:15 when I put him back in his crib. I was so tired I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow because I don't remember getting in bed. My alarm went off at 7:45 and I got up and ready for work.
Today was hell at work and I fought every single minute not to fall asleep standing up. It has been a long time since I've wished that I was married (I'd rather be remarried than share custody of my kids and I've always said I'll never get married again) because I would have really appreciated more than 30 minutes of sleep.
It is almost midnight now and my older two girls (who luckily slept through everything last night) and my son is asleep and my daughter is being a little chatterbox. She has a lot to talk about, when I got home from work I took her to the doctor because she has an ear infection. That is why she was screaming last night. If I had put it together I would have figured that out earlier. But it really wouldn't have done any good cause I wasn't about to take all my kids into the ER at 4 am.
I'm looking forward to this weekend, I'm doing my first photo shoot for people who aren't related to me. They're my friends so I consider them family but still, it is a step up for me. It should be fun.
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