Or yak. I cannot decide which today. Maybe it will be both.
Since we arrived home from the East Coast three weeks ago, we have not been sleeping. None of us. And actually during our vacation we slept poorly there as well, but at least the grandparents gave us a bit of a break. Hunter and Cavan are waking up numerous times throughout the night. Prior to our trip both were sleeping so well that maybe we just got a little spoiled!
Something is definitely going on with Hunter. He goes to sleep every night just before 8pm. We hear him get out of his bed during the night and he runs to the living room (this happens anywhere between 3 and 5 times a night)! Then when you pick him up, he is usually screaming and asking us to play toys or to watch his dump truck movie (this of course wakes up the baby). Most often we can get him back to sleep in just a few minutes, but sometimes we have to throw him in bed with us to calm him down. I am guessing this is nightmares, but maybe some growing pains as well, or he is just addicted to his dump truck movie? He then gets up for the day anywhere between 4 and 5:30am. There is no getting him back to sleep at that point. He is still napping, but it is just for an hour and a half in the afternoons. I have found him to be more grumpy and acting out more (which could also just be toddler behaviours). We try to get him outside to play and he is down at the rec centre twice a week to burn off energy.
For Hunter we have gotten suggestions of just leave him in his room (well he just screams until he yaks, and of course it is hard to keep a baby asleep when the toddler is crying), and don't let him nap (hard because if we try to keep him up for the day you will look over and there he is curled up on his blanket asleep anyways). Do you have any ideas??
Cavan is also waking up numerous times throughout the night. He is also asleep by 8pm, but is up again a few hours later. After that he wakes up usually once an hour to feed. The worst part is trying to get him back down into his crib. He can be right asleep and then as soon as his head hits the mattress he is wide awake and yelling at you. This of course wakes up Hunter. He is also awake for the day around 5am. He naps for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon (of course he rarely will nap the same time as his brother), and a half hour cat nap around 6pm.
Suggestions so far have been to switch him to formula (trying, mainly because he is now biting, but he won't drink from the bottle) and to just let him cry in his crib (counterproductive because it wakes up Hunter, plus we are not fans of just letting the kids cry themselves out especially when they are this young). Any other ideas?
So Matt and I are exhausted. Seriously, you should see Matt, he looks horrible. I bet he is wishing right now that he could just crawl onto one of the patient beds and take a nap. And me... well I am ready to cry at a moments notice. I am miserable from this lack of sleep. I know, I know... you have 9 kids and you are doing just fine and you are supermom.... good for you. I am not and I have no clue how to get through this. So please send positive ideas or a relief crew. I will gladly accept both!