Ah....Sleep

This is not my bed, but it is where I have slept - alone- for the past two nights.  Why? you might ask.  Well, because for the past several weeks, sleep has been rather sparse for some of us around here.  Most nights, I get up 2 or 3 or 4 times with Peter. Then I also get up 2 or 3 times with Megan, most often having to take her back down to her bed and sit patiently by until she falls asleep again. (Because I know there is no chance of me sleeping at all if she climbs into my bed.) Add on to this the occasional night where Amelia also gets up to go to the bathroom and starts crying because she doesn't want to go into the dark bathroom alone.  And Samantha waking up and crying because her teeth (recent dental work) or her legs hurt. And then sometimes the dog starts barking to go out or to come back in, which necessitates a rapid response so he doesn't wake up anyone who might still be asleep at that particular moment. And so it has been going for night after night, after night for weeks and weeks. Some days I feel like I can barely see straight and I find myself just dreading the nights because I am so desperate to sleep but am not hopeful that I will be able to do so. This has also led to an almost constant headache, continual loss of coping skills, and apparently to my being a less than perfect mother and wife.  (Go figure.)  

Now I know that I need to let Peter "cry it out" at night, but he is usually so sweet and pleasant during the day that I just can't bring myself to be mean to him like that.  But it turns out that I'm married to a pretty great guy, who came home on Thursday and told me that he had booked me a room for Friday and Saturday night so I could get a little sleep. (In Shawn's defense, he is perfectly willing to get up with kids at night but he just doesn't wake up.  And usually by the time that I get him to wake up enough to be of use, I'm awake enough myself that it defeats the purpose, and then often, whichever child he may go to try and help, will scream until I show up anyway.)  So anyway, I was feeling very guilty about leaving him with the kids while I went off to sleep. (But not guilty enough to stay home.)  He said he would take care of the whole crying it out thing with Peter and I could be sleeping soundly somewhere else.  So off I went.  

What do you know, but apparently all it takes to get all of my kids to sleep through the night is to get me out of the house. Both nights, no one got up.  No one. Seriously?  Even the baby slept until 5:30!  He managed, by sheer will alone to get all of the kids to stay in their beds asleep all night.  (Sheer will is also how I believe my brother Rob has managed to keep all of his hair when all of my other brothers are losing theirs - but that is another, unrelated topic.) Apparently my power of positive thinking is not nearly as strong as Shawn's.  I guess I better work on that. And now that I have tasted of the sweetness that is a good night's sleep, I am pretty sure I don't want to go back to that getting up 7 or 8 times a night - ever again.  Wish me luck, I'm off to bed for a glorious, sleep filled night.  (See me being positive?)  They will all sleep tonight.  They will all sleep tonight... They will all sleep tonight....