Friday, March 27, 2009

Sleep Deprivation

"Is he sleeping through the night?" is the most common question people ask me when they are asking about Jackson. My response is usually a nod or a "he's doing okay". Then I follow up with "Wyatt on the other hand..."

A few weeks before Jackson was born, we took Wyatt out of his crib, out of his room, into Maxfield's room and into a bottom bunk bed. It was little much for a two-and-half year old. Then we brought home a baby and all hell broke loose.

Wyatt already had some pretty odd sleep habits but now that he is an a bed adjusting to those habits is difficult. For instance Wyatt sleeps with whatever toy he was playing with earlier that afternoon. He has selpt with a basketball, a football, a number of cars, a string, a tool box filled with tools, an index card box filled with coupons, a golf club and many more various items. When he was in the crib and lost his toy in the middle of the night the toy stayed confined to the crib. He would wake up, realize his toy was gone, and feel around the crib to retrieve it. Now that he is in a bed the toys end up all over the place and when he wakes up and can't find it he calls for me. I have spent many nights in his room searching for the specific coupon that fell out of his box, or the shoelace that fell between the bed and the wall, just so he could back to sleep.

If I am not getting up in the middle of the night to search for a set of channell locks for Wyatt, I have been getting up up to comfort him because he is scared. He sees shadows and monsters in the closet. He has nightmares and recently he is claiming he is afraid of the dark. We now let him sleep with the light on. I know Wyatt is adjusting to the baby and to being the middle child. I know many middle children who are afraid of the dark so I don't mind the light on. Leaving the light on, however, has become a problem for Max. Max does not like going to sleep with any light on.

Lauren decided to help Maxfield by making him a sleep mask. He wears it most nights and it has helped the situation. Now when I go into their room, in the middle of the night, I can't help but laugh at the fact that Thurtson Howell the Third is sleeping in the top bunk.

What is this mythical sleeping through the night thing people speak of?

20 comments:

Melissa said...

LOL at Thurston.

and poor sweet Wyatt...i hope he (and you) gets a decent night sleep soon. maybe soon he'll figure out Jackson isn't going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

The bottom bunk...
Wyatt and The Skipper have something in common.

SciFi Dad said...

Somebody needs to teach Max to call you "lovey" at night.

Also? If you ever figure out this "through the night" thing (or hell, even the "less frequent than every two hours" thing) please let me know.

Anonymous said...

I'm sincerely sorry for your lack of sleep --and especially for poor Wyatt, going through so many changes at once-- but you posted those links and now I am ROTFL!

Bev Sykes said...

By the time my 5 kids had reached the point where everybody slept through the night (10 years or so!), my sleep cycle had been forever altered and I no longer needed (or ever got) 8 hrs of sleep.

I feel you pain!

Patience said...

Great pic!

Sleep through the night? I can't even sleep through the night!

Bogart said...

I thought those things were supposed to be pink and fuzzy...

Oh wait, that is handcuffs...carry-on.

Ern said...

Poor sensitive Max. He's like the prince and the pea.

Anonymous said...

Love this idea!

Mindie said...

I think we all ass parents go through this. With Joe, he has a night light, and he also listens to lullabies to help him think "good thoughts." Lol. Of course, being seven years old and getting tougher, he doesn't tell that last bit to any of his friends. Lol.
But, we also went through the toy thing, and the scared thing (we still do). He's been scared of The Brady Bunch, shadows, ghosts, Bloody Mary, a commercial on Nickolodeon, and really, more inane stuff than I can name. Lol. My eight year olds recent night time scare was salmonella.

Otter Thomas said...

Great Thurston Howell reference. The quest for sleep is one of the truly insane journeys of my life. Someday I will get there.

James (SeattleDad) said...

You mean there will come a time when I will have to get up every couple of hours to comfort Lukas? Ok, I could have done without finding that out. I was prepared for him to sleep 11 hours straight through the night indefinitely.

BKP said...

Your Wyatt is my Thing Two. I am with SciFi Dad in that I would love to get to the night where I get more than two straight hours of sleep. But to be a sap, this won't last long so I cherish my sleep deprivation for now.

Michelle said...

I have 4 kids ages 7 and under, I have no idea what "sleep through the night means" other than "not at my house." Love the Thurston Howell look. And perhaps you should put Wyatt's toy du jour in a small box next to him in the bed, than it wouldn't wander quite so far.

sari said...

I have three boys and they never sleep through the night unless they're all three sleeping in my room, which is tough!

We've taken the closet doors off. That didn't help.

My middle son is like Wyatt - he has to have THAT CERTAIN SPECIFIC THING when he's sleeping or we're all up searching for it. I feel for you.

Love the sleep mask.

Teach-ME-Mom said...

Great idea on the sleep mask as a compromise! As far as the "through the night" thing? Phfft.

We have a 3.5 year old and a 22 month old. Our older daughter has been a great sleeper since about 5 months or so. The younger? She just started 'sleeping through the night' about a month ago or so. It lasted two weeks, until her nightmares started... *sigh*

Knitted_in_the_Womb said...

LOL!

My boys (5 & 7 years old) have a bunk bed.

And they both sleep on the bottom bunk. With their feet pointed toward each other.

Seriously...I have to make up the bed with pillows on each end, and the sheets/blankets just tucked in on the sides, because they sleep in the same bed along side each other. Can't wait to see how long that lasts as they get older and their feet get stinky!

Have you tried getting bedrails to keep Wyatt's toys a bit more contained?

Jess said...

Ugh! Same here. I'm tired!

kalki said...

You all need to fly somewhere so Max can use it on a plane. Order him a scotch and he'll be just another businessman flying the red eye...

Anonymous said...

As a father of two children (ages 6 and 3) that rarely sleep through the night, I think that everyone who says their kids do sleep through the night are liars.

This is synonymous with the lie guys tell when they say they never jerk off.

Okay, that's a pretty creepy comparison.