I have had one heck of a middle of the week extravaganza. The tiniest peanut literally has decided that sleep is not for her and that all she wants is mommy. This working mom junk is tough. Literally toughest thing in the entire world.
The last two nights I have tried to put the kids to bed about 15 minutes earlier than normal because they are clearly tired. Eyan has no problem and goes right to sleep. Emberlynn on the other hand is lengthening this fun out. My great sleeping baby that used to go bath, book, milk, bed and out within 5 minutes is now taking up to 3 hours to put to sleep. Same basic routine (replace milk with water most nights) and now we need to be rocked and held and she must talk to me about all the things and then sing and then cry because I tell her it is sleepy time and then start the chaos over again.
I must sleep people; you know like the rest of the human race. I have 175 students that require me to be awake, alive and alert each weekday and on those evenings where I have fought a child for 3 hours and had absolutely no downtime from 4:45am to 11:00pm I am a disaster and both my own children and my students are being affected.
I have resorted to crying it out, which for her is more of a whine, with some yelling about legos and talking and then some crying and more whining and more talking. I watch her on the monitor until she finally settles and then goes to sleep and then the huge amounts of mommy guilt set in. Those thoughts of “I just let my kid cry and didn’t comfort them and there are parents out there that have lost kids and would die for the chance to comfort their child again.” I am not a huge fan of CIO. Eyan almost never had to do that and Emberlynn didn’t really need it either. I am at a loss. I know that it has to do with me being back at work and that she just wants to be with me, but man this is tough.
