Sorry for my absence. We went to stay with some family at a cabin about a half hour from here and I brought the laptop with me, knowing full well that there was no internet and opportunity to check email and write blog posts would be at a minimum anyhow. We went up Saturday morning with the best possible outlook. By 10 o’clock last night, I was starting to see some real problems with the whole “not being at home” thing.
I’ve mentioned before that Liam is a “picky sleeper”. Which isn’t to say that he isn’t a great sleeper. He just only sleeps great when it’s on his terms. And his terms explicitly state: “my crib, my room”. Well, we haven’t tested the “my room” part of that yet, that will hopefully come later this week. At the very least, though, it has to be his crib. And his own room, meaning he’s the only one in it. Last night, he showed us just how far he’s willing to take this little idiosyncrasy of his.
The plan was for me to stay in the small bedroom (the cabin had two bedrooms, one large and one small) on the full bed by myself (with my two body pillows) (yes, TWO) with Liam set up in the pack in play there. Simple plan, no? First off, the child did not want to go to sleep in there. Despite having maybe a thirty minute nap in the car earlier that day and being undoubtedly tired, he would not even stop crying unless one of us stayed in the room. That person ended up being me. As long as I was in the room, he was happy to babble to himself and try not to fall asleep. He tried very hard. And, I kid you not, that child eventually (EVENTUALLY) fell asleep SITTING UP in the pack n play. Snoring and the whole nine yards. Sitting up. Gah. So when I was assured he was well on his way to dream land, I laid him down properly and covered him up. By this point, I was pretty bushed so I decided to just crawl in bed and make a go of it.
Of course, I had heinous heartburn (pizza for dinner) and what seemed like constant Braxton-Hicks contractions. And when I wasn’t plagued by those two events, I was subjected to Evie’s spirited gymnastics routines. I know I dozed off, but I don’t think it was very long before Liam heard a noise (turns out, it was Kile using the bathroom out in the hall) that woke him up and he started crying. I didn’t want him waking everyone up so when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to settle back in, I picked him up. He sagged against me, obviously tired, but also clinging tightly which told me he was scared too. So I decided to pull him into bed with me. He can be rather interesting to sleep with. First off, he flops around like a fish out of water. And he would wake up and cough about every ten minutes. This went on for quite a while before I came awake (I dozed off? Couldn’t have been for long) to him sitting bolt upright and, again, scared. The room was as dark as it had been all night, which told me it was getting close to dawn. Thank GOD. I knew at that point, the night was a lost cause. I comforted Liam, held him close to me. Again, I could tell he was exhausted. He’d had about as much sleep as I had, which wasn’t very much. I finally laid him down in the pack n play and he settled in.
Of course, this doesn’t mean he didn’t cry on and off every 10 to 20 minutes or so. I think he would come awake, notice his strange surroundings and voice his displeasure. Then he’d doze off again. I noticed the room starting to lighten up and right about then Liam seemed to really settle in and stopped crying so much. I felt like maybe, just maybe, I would be able to catch some shut-eye before everyone else woke up.
That’s when an alarm on someone’s cell phone went off. I couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from, but I could hear it loud and clear and was surprised that it didn’t wake Liam up. It stopped. About 5 minutes later, it went off again. Then it went off. Five minutes later? There it was again. At this point, I just gave up. I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad and I wanted to investigate. I went and used the bathroom and when I came out, Kile had gotten up (he was sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room with Harry) and was turning the alarm off. My nephews were still asleep on the floor. I think it was about then that I just lost it. I was so tired and so strung out, that I let the floodgates loose and just cried. I told Kile, “I cannot do this again tonight.”
See, our plan was to stay there until Monday morning/afternoon. But the prospect of another night of the same conditions (can I just say? I’m not terribly picky but that bed was pretty awful and I can say that with confidence judging from our past bed) was too much to take. I knew I would have to come back home. So that’s where I am right now. Home. After dinner, Kile drove me, Liam and the dogs home. Everyone else came along (they’re planning to get ice cream before heading back) so that Kile could leave the van here and ride back with them in their SUV. We put Liam to bed right away and he settled right in to his crib and hasn’t made a peep since. The dogs are curled up on the couch, with plans of joining me in the great, big king-sized bed a little later.
And me? I’m watching “Cast Away”, drinking some Simply Apple (LOVE) and writing this post to let you all know that no, I haven’t perished in the last day. (The “Wordless Sunday” post picture was taken and sent with my cell phone and was of Liam this morning after he’d had some breakfast and was literally kicking back to watch everyone.) For now, I plan to get myself to bed. I literally cannot wait.
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