I hate a bad bedtime.
You know the kind. Where there's lots of whining, negotiating, dragging of feet (the three year old) and crying and screaming (the 15 month olds, and sometimes the three year old, too!).
I have to work very hard not to let it ruin my whole day.
But it is so frustrating to me that four children who go down like champs for the naps can fight bedtime so hard.
Fortunately this is not an every day occurrence, but tonight was one of those nights.
It's not too bad when one child has trouble going down, but when two or more have trouble, it's a real struggle for all of us.
And when everyone is FINALLY in bed and quiet, there are still dishes to be done, laundry to fold, and picking up to do--the things that usually get done in the extra hour plus we spent getting kids to sleep tonight. And I just don't want to face it.
By 8:30 p.m. I am ready to be done for the day. After 14-hour days, plus getting up some at night, I am ready for the chores to be done and to have some time to catch up with my husband or do something for myself for a change.
Three babies plus a preschooler all day is physically and mentally demanding and by 8:30 my patience is limited and I'm reaching the end of my physical capacity, too.
Seems I need to learn how to do a quick recharge for nights like tonight. And I need to not let it ruin what was a pretty good day. The boys were lots of laughs, and Amelia and I got to bake together. As I just pointed out, it was a 14-hour day, so I guess letting the last hour and a half cancel out all the good is really silly.
Just gotta shake off these bedtime blues!
Showing posts with label crying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crying. Show all posts
Monday, January 4, 2010
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Cranky Pants
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. It was one of those days as a triplet mama that makes you want to salt your children and eat them whole. Or at least eat a gallon of premium ice cream.
No one napped well and everyone had their cranky pants on all day. HA! That's an understatement. All of the boys power napped in about 30-minute increments. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Until you factor in the time it takes to get them all down and come up with 10 minutes at stretch without a crying baby.
Nothing made them happy. Not bottles, not bouncies, not peekaboo, not rocking, not walking, not being salted... (Just kidding! Had to make sure you were still paying attention!) Jeff, also known as World's Best Husband, came home early after we talked at noon and I was entering my fifth hour of non-stop crankiness. (The children's, not mine. Though come to think about it...)
A quick, hot soak in the tub to unwind muscles that had literally been holding two babies at once most of the day made things look a whole lot better to me. And while one or the other of us still spent much of the evening holding two babies at once, just having a second set of hands here cuts the stress level at least in half.
Perhaps the hardest part about yesterday wasn't the crying and fussing, but knowing the whole time that if I had just one baby and he/she was having a bad day I could have held and soothed that one baby much better than I could help my triplets. Sometimes it's very frustrating to do half a job or one-third of a job in comforting a child. When do you set down the one that's still crying in your arms to pick up ONE of the two children crying in the crib? Who do you pick up first? How do you soothe the babies you can't hold or even pat because your hands are already full? And then there's the gymnastics of holding two babies, setting one baby down while holding another, jiggling one on a hip while trying to pat two others in the crib.
When we had Amelia I remember someone telling me that nothing in this world could make you feel more inadequate than a crying baby. I found that to be very true. But THREE crying babies will make you feel even more inadequate. Trust me
Even though it was a challenging day, it was still a day that brought the occasional smiles and giggles in and amongst the fussing. And those things will make even the worst day seem pretty darn good.
No one napped well and everyone had their cranky pants on all day. HA! That's an understatement. All of the boys power napped in about 30-minute increments. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Until you factor in the time it takes to get them all down and come up with 10 minutes at stretch without a crying baby.
Nothing made them happy. Not bottles, not bouncies, not peekaboo, not rocking, not walking, not being salted... (Just kidding! Had to make sure you were still paying attention!) Jeff, also known as World's Best Husband, came home early after we talked at noon and I was entering my fifth hour of non-stop crankiness. (The children's, not mine. Though come to think about it...)
A quick, hot soak in the tub to unwind muscles that had literally been holding two babies at once most of the day made things look a whole lot better to me. And while one or the other of us still spent much of the evening holding two babies at once, just having a second set of hands here cuts the stress level at least in half.
Perhaps the hardest part about yesterday wasn't the crying and fussing, but knowing the whole time that if I had just one baby and he/she was having a bad day I could have held and soothed that one baby much better than I could help my triplets. Sometimes it's very frustrating to do half a job or one-third of a job in comforting a child. When do you set down the one that's still crying in your arms to pick up ONE of the two children crying in the crib? Who do you pick up first? How do you soothe the babies you can't hold or even pat because your hands are already full? And then there's the gymnastics of holding two babies, setting one baby down while holding another, jiggling one on a hip while trying to pat two others in the crib.
When we had Amelia I remember someone telling me that nothing in this world could make you feel more inadequate than a crying baby. I found that to be very true. But THREE crying babies will make you feel even more inadequate. Trust me
Even though it was a challenging day, it was still a day that brought the occasional smiles and giggles in and amongst the fussing. And those things will make even the worst day seem pretty darn good.
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