For the record, it is 2:18 a.m. as I type this. I have been up with one or the other of my two boys since a little after 1:00 a.m. And I dealt with N's cough for a little bit too. Hence I am now wide.frackin.awake.
I keep this blog for a number of reasons, one of which is so that when my children are adults in therapy, complaining about what a raving bitch of a mother I was to them, I can print out copies of posts like this one. See, I was a raving bitch because you little fuckers kept me up half the night. For years.
With M, I know why he wakes me up---he's a 7-month-old baby. He needs to eat and/or his top two teeth are taking foreva to cut through the gums. It is frustrating, to be sure, but he's still a wee babe.
But the 2-year-old? The other night he hollered for me. When I picked him up to rock him for a minute, he asked, "Can we wisten to da ipod?"
Are you kidding me?
And then just a bit ago, he screamed for Clifford, the red stuffed dog. Now he hadn't gone to bed with this dog at 8:00 p.m., but he HAD to have him now, which required me to haul ass downstairs with a flashlight to find Clifford in the family room in a futile attempt to stop the wailing and allow every still sleeping individual to continue sleeping. When Clifford was safely in G's bed, he kept on screaming. Because now he needed Aquafor on his nose.
Unless a masked intruder has a gun pointed at you or you are bleeding from your eyes, I can see no other reason to be SCREAMING at the top of one's lungs at 1:30 in the morning. But then I am not two.
So let's review. Monday was deal with psycho-kindergartener. Wednesday in the wee hours of the morning is deal with psycho-toddler time. I simply cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has in store.
1 comment:
Oh, that sounds awful! :( Is there anyway you can get some time to yourself? Your last few posts have sounded like you're in desperate need of some time off. I know if I don't get time to myself, I end up resenting SparkleEyes even though she's just being a kid with a kid's needs...It must be exhausting to have 3 kids, all so young, all still so in need of their mom! I can't imagine.
No idea if you're looking for suggestions for discipline or not. If you are, I've got a few favorite books I'll list below. If not, just know I'm sending you a big hug and hopes for a really good break from all those kids. You deserve some pampering!
On the discipline front, have you tried Love and Logic? We've found it to be really helpful in behavior management. And Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman is supposed to be really good. I actually haven't read it, but a therapist friend of mine loves it and tells me that my parenting style is pretty much right out of the book, and I've found that the more I'm able to clue into SparkleEyes needs and help her express them and weather her strong emotions, the happier we all are. I've also loved Daniel Siegel. Recently read Parenting From the Inside Out and found it really insightful about how our kids can trigger old feelings and patterns in parents, which can make us react to them in ways that aren't helpful, at least for those of us (like me) who didn't have healthy parents. It's got lots of good stuff to help you understand why you react to your kids as you do. Maybe wouldn't apply to you as I have no idea what your background is and whether or not you have old wounds to work through like I do, but really helpful if you do.
Again, sending really big hugs. I so hope you're getting some good rest.
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