Every morning is Christmas

We have a tradition in our family, that on Christmas morning all the children come into our room when they wake up.  They wait there until everyone is awake, and then we all go downstairs together to the front room to see what Santa has brought. Apparently this tradition has stuck because our children, when they wake up in the morning, on any day, come immediately into our room and don't seem to want to go downstairs until everyone is awake and ready to go down for breakfast.

We'll have 5 children rolling around on our bed or our floor, asking us over and over again "Can we go down and have breakfast now?" It doesn't matter how often we tell them "You can go downstairs anytime you want.  You don't have to wait for us." They seem to treat it like Christmas, where they can't go downstairs until everyone is ready and Mom and Dad say it's okay.

I have no doubt this is one of those things that when they are older I will miss.  Knowing that my children want to see me first thing when they wake up in the morning and that they want to be together.  It would be nice if they would occasionally wake up on a morning when I finally get to sleep in, and decide "I think I will go downstairs and play quietly by myself rather than waking Mom and Dad up and staying in their room until everyone is here." I have my doubts about whether this will ever happen, and I guess I'll miss it when it finally does.

Early to bed...

Benjamin Franklin has the following quote attributed to him: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Besides health, wealth, and wisdom, I can think of many reasons why I should go to bed earlier at night. Here are some of them:

I can wake up earlier.
I'm more likely to exercise.
I have time to read my scriptures before the day begins.
It's not as hot when I'm running outside.
I get to see the sunrise as I run.
There aren't as many cars on the road when I'm biking.
I'm up before my children and have a little bit of quiet time.
I feel more rested.
I have more patience with my children and everyone else.
I'm more productive.
My brain functions more clearly.
I have lunches made on time.
I'm not late for morning appointments.
I get my morning chores done.
I don't feel like falling asleep at 4 pm.
I'm happier.

You'd think with a list like that, I'd be completely motivated to go to bed early. And yet, I have a hard time stopping at night in time so that I do go to bed early.  Maybe I need to hang this list up somewhere and review it every night after the kids go to bed, to remind myself to go to bed early. It's kind of like eating healthy. You know you should do it, and you know you feel better when you do it, and yet somehow, it doesn't always usually happen. Maybe I need help from some of you that do go to bed early.  I'm pretty sure someone must go to bed early or at a reasonable time. How do you do it? Set an alarm? Rewards for going to bed early? A more comfortable bed? Any tips?

Watching my boys sleep

I love watching my boys sleep. I don't know what it is, and I don't know why it's different than watching my girls sleep.  Maybe it's just the fact that my girls are in a bunk bed and curled up under big blankets, so I can't see them well. But I love checking in on my boys at lights out or before I go to sleep.  It's complete peace and silence and sweetness. It makes me happy.

Nap math

This post is to go right along with my sleep deprivation math post.  I decided that one night of bad sleep equals 2 nights of good sleep to make up for it.  I'm wondering why 15 minutes of napping equals a bedtime that occurs one hour later.  You would think if my older toddlers took a 15 minute nap, perhaps they would go to sleep 15 minutes later, but that never seems to happen.  Their energy seems to grow exponentially.  What I'm really wondering, though, is why 15 minutes of napping for me doesn't seem to equal an hour more of energy at bedtime.  Anyone want to figure the math for me there?

Sleep deprivation math

We went camping last weekend, and so of course my children were awake until about 11 pm.  This is long past their normal bedtime of 7 pm (where most of them are asleep by 8 pm).  You would think that after coming home and having one good night's rest, that somehow this would equal out and they would be back to normal.  I've found that it almost always takes 2 good nights of sleep, though, to make up for every 1 late night.  And it's not just my children.  I think I have this same problem.  I'm never as tired the morning after a late night as I am the following day, as if there's a one day lag.

I started calculating what this means for catching up for sleep in my lifetime, if I have to have 2 good nights' sleep to make up for every 1 bad night of sleep.  I pretty sure I went through 4 years of high school and 5 years of college without many good nights' sleep.  So, 9 years x 2 to make up for it, would mean I would need 18 years of good sleep.  Maybe the first 13 years of my life I slept pretty good, so that gets me pretty close.  Then we get to starting to raise a family.  We can rule out about 6 months of each pregnancy x 4 children, so there's another 2 years.  Oh, and then there's the first 3 months of having a new child when you're up in the middle of the night regularly, x 4, so there's another 1 year.  That's 3 years, so I'll need another 6 years to make up for that.  I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen until all my children are older and done with night terrors, bad dreams, etc.  Oh, but wait, then there's are those teenage years when I'm up worrying about my children or waiting for them to come home at night. 

I've decided I should probably stop calculating it all and just go to sleep.  Apparently I need all the good nights' sleep I can get.

Uncaging the Animal

We uncaged the animal this week.  We took the side railing off the crib our 19 month old sleeps in and turned it into a toddler bed.  We decided we might as well do it now.  If I try to do it in February, in the middle of tax season and when the new baby is almost here, I'm pretty sure I would not have the patience to do it.  But, the baby's going to need a place to sleep, so we had to do it sometime.

Switching child #1 to a "big kid bed" was a bad experience.  She was about 19 months old, and like this child, we were going to need the crib for the new baby on the way.  She has never been an easy child to get to sleep at night, and this just made it worse.  She would scream and refuse to sleep in her bed, but also refuse to sleep in the crib anymore.  We would find her asleep on the floor, or up against the door when we tried to open it.

Child #2 was a breeze.  He's always been the sort of kid that just goes right to sleep when he's tired.  We got bunkbeds, so his big sister got to sleep on the top bunk and he got to sleep on the bottom.  No problem.

This child falls somewhere in the middle.  She's okay about going to sleep, but given the choice between sleeping and playing, she'll always choose playing regardless of how tired she is.  Here's how it went:
Day 1 - 19 mo stayed up until 10 pm (normal sleep time is 8 pm) playing with her sister, climbing into the top bunk, and pulling toys off the toybox to play with.  We found her asleep on the floor and had to move her to her bed. Other 2 kids were asleep by 9:30 at the latest.
Day 2 - She went to sleep during nap time, but it was on her sister's bed on the top bunk.  At night, about every 20 minutes we went in to try to get her in her bed to go to sleep.  She kept trying to go back up to the top bunk to play with her sister, who seemed to be enjoying it.  There was much crying involved.  They were all asleep finally by 9 pm.
Day 3 - She napped on the top bunk again.  We finally unscrewed the ladder from the bunkbed before bedtime.  Her older sister has to climb up now using the footboards or the dresser.  The 19 mo was sad to not be able to climb up anymore (and only fell once trying), but it was much more peaceful and all were asleep by 9 pm.

I'm hoping it continues to calm down some.  I'm pretty sure my sleeper boy is looking forward to having his own room in the near future so that he can just go to sleep and not be kept awake by his two sisters.  I'm looking forward to his getting more sleep so that the daytime is a little happier.  I may have to cut down on the 19 mo nap time so she starts to go to sleep a little earlier at night, but I'm not sure that would help right now.  This is just another one of those things I think you just have to sit through as a parent and wait for it to be done.  At least they get along, right?  I'll enjoy those moments while I can before they become teenagers.

Bedtime and bathtime.

I love bedtime and bathtime for my kids.  For many reasons.  In fact, I'm usually a little sad when I can't be there for bedtime for my kids.  It's like our little family time.  We start bedtime at 7 pm (which is early for a lot of families, but perfect for mine).  After gathering the necessary water bottles, stuffed animals, and books, we all head upstairs (including my husband, assuming he isn't gone for a meeting) and put all 3 of the kids in the bathtub together.  There is probably only about 4 inches of water in the tub, and we don't even always use soap or shampoo.  Really, it's more about calming down and having a little transition time before they have to get in bed.  We tell stories, play guessing games where I'll say a line from one of their books and they have to guess the book, and everyone gets to just sit for a few minutes. 

One by one, we get them out of the tub and dressed in pajamas. Then it's time to brush hair and teeth; I brush their hair while they brush their teeth. It's time then for family prayer, after which they each get to choose a book to read as we sit on the bottom bunk bed.  We sing "I Am a Child of God", give hugs and kisses, and Dad leaves while mom helps them say their personal prayers, reads a chapter from a book (Charlotte's Web right now), and then sings a song, before leaving them.  I love it.

Granted, there are times when all 3 kids are screaming before, during and after the bath, and you just want to shut the door and run away.  But those aren't the norm.  The norm is that I get to sit in the relatively quiet with my kids, and just enjoy their company.  I know that they will only be little for a short while longer, and I'm trying to soak it all in.  This is one of those times when I can do that.  Far too soon, they'll have to just shower and get dressed and ready by themselves.  They won't want to sit on Mom's lap and read a story before bedtime.  But for now, I get to enjoy these little ones every single night.  And I do.

Rowdy stuffed animals

The stuffed animals are getting kind of rowdy tonight.  I had to go in and tell my 4 yr old at 9 pm that it was 5 minutes until lights out. (She's been in bed since before 8 pm).  She said the animals were laughing and bouncing all over the place.  Apparently they're the ones being loud tonight and not her, so I had to tell them it was bedtime as well.

I love having an imaginative child.  I love that each of her stuffed animals has a name, and we all know them - Ariel, Punch, Jello, Tutu, Goofy, Donald, etc.  I love hearing her carry on full conversations with them, with each of them speaking in a different voice.  And I love that her little brother can be sound asleep in the bunk bed below her while this is going on (with his one stuffed animal - a dog named "Puppy").  Here's hoping she never stifles that creative side and finds a great outlet for it as she gets older!