Nights

I'm not sure if it's this way for most parents (other than my friend Jess) but I dread night times. After having a second child night times have become, for lack of a better word, nightmares. Edie usually wants to go to bed before Gabe but when Gabe finally gets to bed (between 730 and 800) he likes to play and talk to himself (quite loudly). He has also gotten into the habit of pounding, kicking, and karate chopping his walls, door and or closet in a futile attempt to escape sleep. This of course wakes up Edie and anyone else within a hundred foot radius...you'd be amazed how loud kicking a door can be... and I'm left with two screaming kids and a lip I have chewed to nearly nothing.

The only thing to do is wait until Gabe falls asleep entirely (around 9 pm) and then put Edie to sleep in her room. But she has to sleep somewhere for the next few hours and she usually ends up sleeping on the couch next to me, or is in my bed while I'm on the computer. By the time Gabe hits a deep sleep (and it would be safe to move Edie) it's 10 pm, my bedtime and I'm too tired to give a damn about trying to get Edie to sleep in her crib.

The unfortunate thing about trying to get some backup from Scott is his work schedule. He has 4 days on and 4 days off. The 4 days he has on he can't help me at all because his day shifts begin at 4:00 am and his two night shifts...well hes not here at all obviously. Ultimately, Scott is going to have to take a block or two off so we can transition Edie because I'm not going to attempt it by myself, nor am I going to attempt it on his four days off in case it takes Edie longer than that.

I have no idea how big families manage sleep times but I'm thinking there is a lot of crying it outs. These parents must be really adapted to hearing their kids sobs, or are just so frazzled that they don't care anymore. I think I'll be the second variety parent as I'm already getting to the point of bitterness about the whole bedtime fiasco. Soon my kids will have a mother who will let them cry, cry, cry until they just cant cry anymore because she's just too sleep deprived herself to muster any real energy to sympathize. Besides, at this age a little crying won't devastate their little psyches irreparably...no more than a mommy whose screaming at the top of her lungs "WHY WONT YOU SLEEP" while stomping around, cursing under her breath and crying spontaneously.