Life and More Sleepless Nights

As you can probably tell from my posts, my number one obsession is getting a good night's sleep--which hasn't happened for a very long time.

A few weeks ago, Sam caught a virus, had a fever, etc. He woke up from a nap and refused to talk to Ivan's mother. He just looked at her. She got scared and called 911. They took him to the emergency room and called it a seizure. Was it a seizure? We'll never know. His best buddy who he had played with for a few days in a row did the same thing to his mom, but we didn't find this out until later. Anyway, that was on a Wednesday. They kept him in the hospital overnight and did all sorts of tests. He was annoyed with everyone poking him, sticking him, etc., but he thinks that the fact that he got to ride in an ambulance is really cool. Even cooler, to him, was his IV (or IB, since he can't say his 'v's.) He still has the tape on and absolutely refuses to take it off. I'm thinking about sneaking in one night and loosening it so it falls off when he wakes up in the morning. I was really glad that Ivan's parents could take care of Eric and that Ivan was home to stay the night with Sam in the hospital.

The next Sunday, Ivan left for Spain for 3 weeks. So we resumed our painting projects. A friend of ours has been painting our house and it's so exciting, even though we feel pretty displaced. One night last week, I put the kids to bed and then began practicing the piano accompaniment for our choir for branch conference last Sunday. I said a prayer and made a deal with God ... "since I'm staying up late (for me) to practice this, please help my kids to sleep soundly so that I can get a good night's sleep." (Especially when Ivan is gone, it's hard because I can't ask him to get up with the kids.) I think God has a sense of humor, because this is how my night went:

10:30-I went to bed
12:30 - 12:50 - Fed Eric
1:15 - Sam woke up, crying that he wanted his music on (this is unusual, as he's been a pretty good sleeper lately). I turned on the music and went back to bed.
2:00 - Sam woke up saying that he was "bery" hungry, so I got him some yogurt.
2:15 - Sam slowly eats his yogurt and then starts choking, because he has been sick, so I get him some chicken and a corn muffin.
2:15 - 3:00 - Sam nibbles on his corn muffin while I get more and more impatient.
3:00 - Sam starts yelling and Eric wakes up.
3:10 - I feed Eric
3:30 - I go back and put Sam to bed. He cries that he's hungry. I feel like a bad mom, but then realize that if he was really hungry, he wouldn't be taking tiny bites.
4:00 - Sam is still crying in his crib, so I get out of bed to write emails, since I can't sleep anyway.
4:30 - Sam is asleep, I'm done with my emails, and I go back to bed
6:15 - 6:30 - Eric wakes up to eat. I feed him and take him up to Ivan's parents.
7:00 - Ivan's alarm clock goes off because I forgot to turn it off.
7:45 - Sam wakes up. I take him upstairs and then go back to bed.
9:30 - I wake up for the day. Thank goodness for Ivan's parents!

I was actually able to make it through the next day, so I learned that even if things don't work the way I want them to, I can make it through the day anyway. :)

Eric is still really funny. He loves to talk, but his talking sounds more like yelling. And so does his laughing. It's really loud and sort of stacotto-y. And I think he's pretty punchy because right before he gets so tired that he's grouchy, he gets really giggly and thinks that everything I do is hilarious. Or maybe his laughs are really polite crys? I don't know, but it makes me laugh. There's nothing better than a baby giggling. Eric loves to chew on things. He's in the mouthy stage. He sucks his thumb, sucks my thumb, sucks anything he can get his hands on.