My children won't sleep and it's driving me nuts!

If you've been following my blog since I had Aynslee then you know this is one of many posts about the lack of sleep we get in our household. Aynslee just didn't want to sleep as a baby. We'd rock her and as soon as we'd lay her down she'd wake up so we'd start over some nights this would take 2 hours. I tried Babywise (not a fan) it didn't work. I read, "The No Cry Sleep Solution, by Elizabeth Pantly" I used some of what she suggested but couldn't seem to perfect it for us. 

My main concern about having another baby was that the baby I already had didn't sleep. I thought I was doomed to being up all night long with two kids at different times of the night. One we brought Avery home and the battle of bedtime raged on Josh finally had enough after rocking Aynslee for an hour with out success. He put her in her bed left the room and didn't turn back. It took her a while of crying after about 30 minutes I went into the room ( I had been told not to pick her up and rock her) gently told her that it was bedtime and she needed to lay down and go to sleep. She DID! And slept through the night! 

I am not sure what has happened over the last year. Both girls were sleeping through the night and life was great. Until for some reason Aynslee started having night wakings again. She'd come into our room and want to sleep in our bed. So I made her a little bed on the floor and told her she could sleep there if she needed to but not in the bed with us. Some night's she'd sleep on the floor some night's she'd sneak into the bed. 

Now it's getting worse, she refuses and fusses at bedtime even without a nap to go to sleep. At home I just put her to bed and tell her to go to sleep but she's still ends up in my bed with Josh being gone I don't make a big deal about it. 

But since we have been gone this week bedtime wars have resumed, and it's horrible. I haven't been making Aynslee take a nap while we have been here hoping for an early bedtime of 7:30pm. The other day we had them down at that time and it took Aynslee nearly 2 hours to fall asleep and Avery even longer. Both of them screaming for just about the entire time, we can't have them screaming here. I fear we will get kicked out of the hotel if they do it to often. 

I feel like this isn't normal sleep patterns for an almost 4 yr old. I also feel like I have tried everything I can think of to get this kid to sleep and she's still not sleeping. It's wearing on me. It doesn't give me much quiet time if she doesn't nap then doesn't go to sleep until late. I need some solitude during the day or at night before I go to sleep myself. 

Is there something I am missing? Is she not getting enough sleep? 

sleep, oh how I miss thee

It's happening again. I think I suffer from insomnia. Seriously I am so tired at night but some nights have a terrible time falling asleep. Other nights I go to sleep without a problem only sleep a few hours and wake up. It's getting old very,very fast. Last night was one of those nights I was so exhausted. I had tried to take a nap earlier in the day but the girls wouldn't cooperate. We get in bed at ten, I just can't seem to fall asleep then I hear Aynslee knocking on the door. She was up a lot last night talking and not wanting to sleep so I never really got any rest. And when she woke up before 7:00am this morning I was not ready to be awake.

Most mornings I wake up grumpy and groggy and find it hard to get stuff done. Like this week I can't seem to recover from being away for 2 days. The house was picked up before we left, floors vaccumed and mopped. Today it looks like we had a dirty race in teh kitchen and there are toys and piles of clean clothes almost every where the eye can see.

And as I look around at the mess, I feel even more grumpy and almost nervous from all the cauitous around me. Yet, I can't find the energy to clean everything up.

The only thing I did accomplish this week was reorganizing and cleaning out the girls closet but I left a mess on their floor. One of them wouldn't let me finish. I can't remember which one now.

We have a yard sale to get ready for on Sat. Nothing, I mean NOTHING is ready. And we need to get stuff out at 8:00am for it. We really need to participate in this since we have loads of junk we need to purdge. Maybe I can get to some of it tomorrow.

I need to close this. I have a million and one things to do while Avery takes a nap........

projectile things in the middle of the night

Can you guess what I was up doing most of the night by the above title?

Yep, Aynslee woke up around 3:00am this morning throwing up. Luckily or not, depending on how you look at it, she was in our room on the little mattress so we avoided a big mess. It did require another bath, change of clothes and sheets.

But I wised up once we returned to bed in her bed. I put a towel down for "just in case." She woke up again at 6:00am. The towel did it's trick and we avoid a mess at all this time. Just washing up a little before getting in my bed. Josh had already left for work. I laid down an extra sheet were she was laying down and got a bowl for another episode. About 30 minutes later we tested the bowl out. It worked well. She went back to sleep and slept until after eight. No fever or other symptoms and she is acting like herself.

It's going to be a long day. I need to text Josh and give him an update on how she is doing. Then I need to try to get anything done around the house that I can. It's a disaster this morning.