'Relish the moment,' he says.

Have you ever had one of those moments/days/or nights where all you can think is, “Good grief!?” I’m sure you have. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted one of my running dialogues…but tonight was quite fitting. Since the time change (Spring Forward!) we’ve struggled some with the younger children in getting them to bed. It all started tonight at around 7:30pm when Hubby began getting the 4 ‘littles’ ready for bed. One had to shower tonight, two got on their pjs and brushed teeth all on their own (thank you, Jesus!) and Hubby got Princess all fixed up with a pullup, pjs and brushed her teeth. Since I had Angel baby, Princess always asks me to lay with her at nap time and at bed time. I’ve obliged to some extent and lay in the room for awhile until she falls asleep or until she’s relaxed enough that I know she’ll drift off any moment. Bad habit, I know, but how can I resist her wanting mama near her when she falls asleep??? Lately, I’ve fallen asleep up there and Hubby is left wondering when/if I’m ever coming back- hehe! This process usually happens pretty quickly (within 15 minutes) so it’s never really a problem- until……..the dreaded time change!!!

I fed Angel baby her cereal and asked Hubby to wipe her up and put her pjs on. I headed upstairs with Princess and the other 3 littles. I tucked them all in, prayed and did our nightly routines. I settled myself on the floor next to Princess’ bed and looked at the clock. Little did I know she had snuck a baton into her bed when I wasn’t looking. About 7 minutes in to my ‘I think she should just about be asleep- I don’t hear anything’ dialogue…I got hit in the leg with the baton. That was followed by a quick, “Oh, sorry mom.” I told Princess to be still and go to sleep, all the while confiscating the baton and hiding it under the bed until morning. I started the whole ‘look at the time’ thing again and waited for Princess to get relaxed so I could make my escape. About 5 minutes went by and I heard another noise (meanwhile the other 3 kids have fallen fast asleep!). She had a mini etch-a-sketch in her bed and was shaking it around. I sat up, gave her a STERN warning and took the toy. I hid that under the bed with the purple, sparkly baton.

Princess rearranged her bed and made her covers just right, moved the pillow to a different spot and then carefully laid down so the covers didn’t move. I waited another 5 minutes and then got up to leave. I explained that she was not to get out of the bed or there would be a very serious consequence. That was mommy’s way of saying, ‘I’ve had enough- go to sleep now!!’ I came downstairs and Hubby had since rocked Angel Baby to sleep. Cool! That was a fairly easy bedtime, maybe we’re rounding the corner from this whole time change thing…little did I know…

I picked up Angel Baby to bring her upstairs and then quietly reminded Hubby that our baby goats needed to be fed before he retired for the night. Angel baby stirred. I quickly walked upstairs and sat in the rocking chair to get her back to sleep. After a few minutes I laid her down in the crib and then took up my spot again next to Princess (who was now asleep). 10 minutes went by and Angel baby woke up. I quickly got up and sat back in the chair, nursed her and then rocked her back to sleep. I then tried 8 (yes, I said 8!!!!) times to lay her down in the crib. Every time I laid her down she would pop her head up and would wake up. The cycle went round and round…about the 6th time I got very frustrated as to why she wouldn’t stay asleep.

I heard Hubby come in the door and quietly whisper that I needed to tend to Dear Son #3’s insulin pump infusion set. We change them out approximately every 3 days and tonight his set fell off in the bathtub so he had to go to sleep with the numbing cream on- waiting for the time to pass before I could put the set in. I, fairly loudly exclaimed, “I’ve been trying this WHOLE time to get baby to sleep but she keeps waking up! I’m really frustrated right now! Why do I have to go and do the infusion set? Why can’t you do it?” Hubby replied, “Because it’s dark, and he’s sleeping, and I’m not as good at it as you are, and if I try he’ll wake up and cry and then wake everyone up.” UGH!!! Ok, you take Angel baby then. Hubby starts laughing hysterically. There are 4 kids sleeping, and Angel baby is in her crib up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth (she’ll be crawling soon!) and then I get the giggles. “But I’m mad! This is not funny!” Hubby said, “You need to relish the moment, she’s our Angel Baby!” We were both hysterically laughing at this point…but I was still mad!

I went into the other room to do the set change and clicked the light on. Our Liberian son woke up and began looking at the corner of his sheet as if he misplaced something. I told him to lay down and go back to sleep. He just looked at me. I repeated myself about 3 times before he said, “Huh?” I repeated myself again and he just looked confused. I broke out laughing and then heard Hubby in the other room with Angel baby- he started laughing too. I did the set change and then went back in the room by Hubby. I took Angel Baby and thought I would try and rock her to sleep- give it another shot. She was tired, after all, she would fall asleep right away- she just wouldn’t stay asleep. Hubby told me goodnight and left the room. I tried rocking our ‘arched back, kicking feet, flailing arms, spitting out the paci’ baby. No dice. I brought her downstairs and put her in the exersaucer, turned on the Sprout cartoon channel and headed toward my mound of clean clothes. I had 6 loads of clean clothes patiently waiting for me and that’s all I could think about during this whole bed-time saga. All I wanted to do was get to those clothes because the ‘mountain’ was driving me crazy- and I knew tomorrow I would be washing another 2-3 loads. I didn’t want the mountain to grow to 9 loads of clean clothes!

Angel Baby started laughing hysterically at the puffy, stuffed star on the ‘Good night show.’ I was folding and folding clothes and she started belly laughing at the singing star. Ok…there went my frustration. I was relishing the moment. I began to melt like butter at our sweet Angel Baby. An hour went by, 4 ½ of my 6 loads of clothes got folded and Angel Baby was ready for bed. I rocked her again, she fell asleep and I laid her down in the crib. She didn’t move a muscle. That was bedtime to her, it didn’t matter what the clock said. Her clock said it was time… I looked at all 5 of my sleeping ‘littles’ and thought to myself, “This really is precious.” There will be a day when we only have one or two kids left living in the house- they’ll be big, putting themselves to bed, doing their own laundry, etc. These days will be gone so fast. Hubby is right, instead of getting frustrated at a baby who won’t sleep and freaking out about a pile of laundry to fold- I should relish the moment because in a blink it will be gone. It’s past midnight now and everyone is peacefully sleeping. My clock is telling me it’s time- a new day will soon be dawning!