Sleep??

My kids have been sick and schedules have been a little... off. Whenever that happens Blondie (Im not a HUGE schedule fanatic, but naps and early bedtimes, well they are a must) starts sleeping horrible, which makes her really emotional. If she gets her nap and gets to bed early she sleeps pretty good (from about 7 pm-6ish am). Anyway, schedule different, sickies for two weeks= Blondie waking up at all hours. This past week every time I got up with the baby I would peek down the hall and see Blondies light on. I'd walk into her room and ask what shes doing. She would look up at me with puffy sleep deprived eyes and say she woke up. I would croak out "Go back to bed Blondie, its the middle of the night..." I would turn off her light and stumble back to bed. Next feeding would roll around (5 ish am) and I would look down the hall and see she was up again. At 8 is when I set her nightlight to change (I have a programable night light that shines a moon when they are supposed to be in bed and a sun when its ok for them to come out of their room, it works WONDERFUL especially since my hubby works second shift and we go to bed so late). She then would come into our room saying she was hungry. By 10 am she'd be a wreck and saying she wanted to go to sleep. I'd say "No way, I dont feel bad for you, you need to sleep, Blondie." I think whenever she coughed or her fever would break it would wake her up and she would think it was ok to be up?? Anyway, I would force her to stay awake until nap time. THEN you would think she would sleep four hours since she wasnt sleeping at night right? Noooooo, she would sleep maybe an hour to an hour and a half then wake up again! Tired and emotional. Wow, that girl sometimes. Every night when I put her to bed I would say "If you wake up and its still dark, go back to sleep ok? If you dont sleep you wont get better from your sickness, and you wont be strong. You need sleep." I was trying to get that into her head. Finally after a good four days of getting back on schedule, crazy bad sleep, and a tired little girl she finally slept all. night. long. I saw her light on when I had an early morning feeding. She was playing quietly on the floor, this was the first she had been awake. I said "Good job Blondie, you slept all night!" She looked up at me and flexed her muscle :o) She thought she was strong!

Not only has Blondie (which this is the third day of sleeping through the night, I think we're back on track) been sleeping bad but so has Surprise. Is it because Surprise is a bad sleeper? Oh no, its because she has major stuffy, runny nose problems. Its really a shame, I think she would sleep through the night, every night if it wasnt for her nose. It scares me to death. She'll sleep, then I will wake up and hear her desperately trying to breathe through all the snot in her nose. Which is not very much breath coming through. I then have to pick her up take her into the bathroom suction out her nose (which she hates) and then I try to feed her, but she doesnt really eat. Thats not why shes awake. This happens several times a night. I have her bed shoved right up to ours so I can jump up and get her if shes having problems breathing. Poor baby. I thought maybe she had allergies but I took her in AGAIN today and the doc said shes just picking up what the kids bring home and it seems like one long cold, but its several different ones. Shes to young for allergies. Soooooo, this makes me not want to take the kids anywhere! I just want Surprise to be over this cold. Its been about six weeks.

Anyway, sleep has been... sparse.