Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Where's Christy?

I am here-just busy.  Seems my intentions to 'blog' every night have fallen by the wayside. . . it is not that I don't think about it.  I really do.  It is just that I am either on my way to bed, in bed, or too dang crabby to post anything I won't regret at a later date!  Yes, I am sure you are all tired of hearing me complain talk about our kids and their lack of sleep and therefore our lack of sleep.  Well, we (Mark & I in case you were confused) turned into mean parents in the last couple weeks. 

The turning point was Isaac waking up 7 times. . . . um, yeah, he is 2. . . .what the heck!?!?!?!?!  And Piper was getting up twice. . . once for a blessed 20 minutes and once for an hour. . . or more. . . not such a blessed time anymore. 

So, we cut Piper off from the bottle gradually by giving her water in it. . . she drank it the first night. . . took a few sips the next and refused it after that.  By day 5 she was sleeping through the night.  We have now had 2 nights of Piper sleeping through the night!!!!!!! 

Isaac, our dear boy.  Well, we had a little talk with him before bed one night and told him if he got out of bed at night, he would get a spanking.  Yes, we went there. . . .we do not use spankings very often as a form of discipline.  We usually do 1 2 3 time out. . . .but, Isaac knows that spankings mean business (usually. . .the other times he just laughs and asks for a spanking. . . and yes, it is just as infuriating as it sounds).  So, to bed he went and when he woke up at 2am, I went in and gave him a light 'reminder' swat and told him to get back in bed and stay there or he would get another spanking (Mark and I had talked that the 1st spanking would be more of a reminder and after that we would be more firm).  Well, something connected in his little brain because he stayed in bed and did not get out until morning.  Whoo Hoo!  He has gone between waking once or twice a night since then, so we still have some work to do, but he is getting better.  He gets excited when he can say he "me sleep through night". . . so we are thinking of creating a rewards chart for sleeping and potty (oh yes, we are there too). 

All in all though Mark and I feel like we are returning to the land of the living. . . the land that doesn't need to go to bed at 9pm in order to get a few hours of sleep before the nightmare of kids waking up all the time!! 

I hope to get back to blogging at least every other night, but we will see.  I have so much to say and hopefully people will want to read it!  If not. . . at least I still get to say it!

One final note:  for those of you who have kids who have slept through the night from 6 weeks (or earlier). . . I am working to not be insanely jealous and somewhat resentful. . . . just kidding. . . kind of. . . :).  For those of you with kids who are like ours who just love us so much they can't bear to be apart for more than 3 hours at a time (yes this is the lie I tell myself when I feel like I stink as a parent in the area of sleep), we feel your pain. . . we know that it gets better and then worse, then a lot better and then so bad that you want to claw your eyes out becuase they burn from lack of sleep.  We are in the battle with you!! 

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