Week in Review: Sleep Trouble and Stress

Whew! Last week was LONG and not our best week. Jude went on this random sleep strike. It seemed like he just totally lost the life skill of putting himself to sleep. He was SO hard to get down for his naps and then he wasn't even sleeping very long. He was hard to get to sleep at night and waking up really early in the mornings most days. Then he would sleep really late the next day and catch up. For example, one day he got up at 6:20 AM, and then next day I woke him up at 9:30. He was dealing with a cold/allergy junk, so I assumed it was because of that, and I just did the best I could as far as getting him to sleep. We ended up taking him to the doctor today, and he has a double ear infection :( On top of Jude's sleep issues, Aubrey randomly started getting up earlier and taking naps in the afternoon again. It's kind of weird because she hasn't consistently napped in months. I don't care if she naps, but it kind of stunk this week, because when Jude would sleep late, I couldn't because Aubrey would be up. With that said, I know in the grand scheme of things, we probably won't even remember this rough week. Sleep issues are hard, but they aren't the end of the world. I didn't deal with them with as much grace as I would have liked, because I feel like I'm to the point in this pregnancy where I'm just going to be tired every afternoon, no matter how much sleep I get. So when my child isn't sleeping and I don't get any rest in the afternoon, I'm just not in the best mood. But I'm done complaining! I'm happy to have a reason for Jude's hard week, and we're praying the antibiotic works FAST! Oh, and I took no pictures -- grabbing the camera was not at the top of my list. Keeping my sanity was. Haha!

Sunday: We got up and got ready to go to church. David was doing sound, so we had to be sure to get there on time. We had a good church service, and then we had Sunday School. After church, we came home, and Jude fell asleep in the car. We knew if we woke him up, he wouldn't take another nap, so we transferred him to his bed even though we knew that would mean a short nap since it was lunchtime. I cooked fish and sweet potatoes and green beans for lunch, and then David, Aubrey, and I sat down to eat. Jude woke up right then. He has wonderful timing ;) We ate lunch, and then I took a nap. David played with the kids since Jude was done with napping for the day. We went back to church that evening. We had a guest preacher who is a missionary in Eastern Europe. The sermon was really great and very convicting. After church, we got dinner at Jason's Deli and then came home. Jude was pretty exhausted by that point, and I put him straight to bed. David put Aubrey to bed, and then we just relaxed until bedtime.

Monday: After such a short nap the day before, I was really expecting Jude to sleep until a decent time. He was up at 6:20, though. Ughh. I decided that he wasn't going to get up until 7:30, so I went into his room several times to offer him his paci. He was fairly content during that hour -- he just fussed off and on -- but he definitely wasn't going back to sleep :( I got him up and fed him breakfast and bathed him, and then Aubrey woke up. We were meeting Ashley and Sarah Denley for brunch before Ashley left town, so we got ready and headed to Primos. SD didn't have her kids with her, and Ashley was obviously childless, so I was the only one who was distracted during our brunch. Haha! It was fun, though! Ashley got to see my wild children in action ;) We said our goodbyes after a while so that Ashley could get on the road home. We'll miss her! The kids and I came back home, and I fed them a little lunch (since we had just eaten brunch) and then attempted naps. Jude didn't go to sleep easily like I thought he would. Frustrating! He did finally fall asleep, and I got on the internet and straightened up the house. When the kids woke up, we played for a while, and then I started cooking chicken spaghetti for dinner. When I got it in the oven, the kids and I went on a walk while it cooked. Aubrey wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of a walk, and she got "really tired" halfway through, but she did fine. When we got home, our dinner was almost ready. I didn't really expect either child to eat the dinner well, but they both did. It was probably the least stressful meal that we've had in AGES, and it was so nice! They both ate a good amount, and there was no food throwing. Ha! After dinner, the kids played while I straightened up, and then I bathed Aubrey. I put Jude to bed, and David put Aubrey to bed. Then I blogged and went to bed myself.

Tuesday: Jude was up really early again. I didn't get him out of bed until 7:30, and that worked out fine. I got us ready for Bible Study, and then we headed to church. I was glad to be back at Bible Study! We hadn't met since before Christmas. We had a good discussion, and then Rebekkah and I went to lunch with our kiddos. It had been way too long! We hadn't gotten together in forever because they were out of town a lot over the holidays. It was so fun to catch up! After lunch, we came home, and I put the kids down for naps. Jude had a very hard time going to sleep. He cried for a long time, and I went up to his room multiple times. I finally had to rock him until he was sound asleep in my arms and transfer him to his bed. It was pretty frustrating, and I had no idea what was going on, because he never has THAT much trouble getting to sleep. Aubrey ended up playing until it was almost time to get up, and then she dozed off. After having all that trouble getting to sleep, Jude still didn't take a very long nap :( I got Aubrey up when he got up, and then we just waited for David to get home. When he did get home, we decided to go on a walk. Jude rode in his stroller, and Aubrey walked. We had a nice time, but Aubrey got tired and didn't want to walk the whole way, and Jude got pretty fussy when we were almost home. When we got home, I started cooking dinner, and David entertained the kids. Jude got SUPER fussy, and he seemed exhausted. I wasn't surprised that he was tired, but I was a little surprised when I picked him up and he literally fell asleep in my arms at 6:30. His nose was runny by this point, so we figured it was a combination of being really tired and not feeling well. We woke him up to eat dinner, and we ate upside down pizza. After dinner, David went upstairs to do some stuff in the attic, and I stayed downstairs with the kids. Jude just sat in my lap the rest of the evening. This is highly unusual. I did enjoy the snuggle time with him :) I took him upstairs and got him ready for bed, but it was still a little too early to put him down. I brought him back down and gave him tylenol, and then it happened. He threw up all over me. I was totally shocked and grossed out. I called David, and he came and helped me. He cleaned up the floor while I changed clothes, and we got Jude cleaned up. At that point, I wondered if he had a stomach bug, but he never threw up or had any other stomach symptoms, so it was apparently just a fluke. He had recently eaten dinner, and I had just given him the tylenol. I think it was a combination of those things and having a lot of drainage in his stomach. I put him to bed a little early then I went to Dairy Queen for a treat while David put Aubrey to bed. I have been trying to do better with sweets, but I needed something after the day and evening I had! David and I talked for a little and then went to bed.

Wednesday: Jude slept LATE. But Aubrey woke up early. Of course ;) When she takes naps, she gets up MUCH earlier than when she doesn't nap (duh), so I have mixed feelings about her napping. Haha! I ended up waking Jude up at 9:30!! How is he so inconsistent!? I let him sleep a lot longer than I normally would since he was so exhausted and puny the night before. When I got him up, he was in a good mood and didn't have fever. His nose was still runny, but it seemed like he just had a cold, so I decided that I didn't need to take him to the doctor. The kids and I just hung out at home. I took a shower and bathed Aubrey and Jude, and we ate lunch. I kept Jude up later than usual since he had slept so late. I had decided that I wasn't going to wake Jude up for tutoring. I knew he needed sleep, so if he was sleeping when we needed to leave, we were just going to miss that week. I was a little unsure about putting him in the nursery anyway. It took him a sweet forever to go to sleep again. Ughh. I finally had to rock him to sleep. I know that's a terrible habit, and normally I wouldn't rock him until he was sound asleep (I love rocking him and do it all the time, but I think it's best for him to put himself to sleep, which he usually does with no problems), but since he wasn't feeling his best, I wasn't comfortable just letting him cry. I was so tired that day and pretty stressed over the sleep issues, though, I'm not gonna lie. It was 2:30 before he went to sleep, so I knew there would be no tutoring. Aubrey had fallen asleep too, so I took a nap myself. Unfortunately, Jude only slept about an hour :( I got him up, and then I woke Aubrey up at 4. I got ready for church, and then David got home. We got the kids dressed, and we headed to church. We ate dinner there, and then we kept the kids with us -- I didn't want to put Jude in the nursery with his runny nose. We were planning on going home right after dinner, but I got to talking to a few people, so we didn't even leave early. We were home by bedtime, and we put the kids right to bed. Jude had issues getting to sleep that night. I was just at a loss about what to do about all these sleep problems all week! I was kind of at my whit's end, so David took over and got him to sleep :)

Thursday: Aubrey woke up at 5:45 saying her foot hurt. I think it must have been asleep. I rubbed her foot for a minute and told her it wasn't time to get up. It took me forever to get back to sleep, and then she woke up again around 7. Jude was still asleep, so I told Aubrey to go back to sleep for a little while. She was wide awake though, so I told her she could get in bed with me until Jude got up. She was very squirmy, but I dozed off and on for a while. We ended up waking Jude up at 8. I'm really going to try to get him on a more consistent schedule. We ate breakfast and stayed home all morning. We played upstairs in Aubrey's room for a while, which we never do. We always just play downstairs, but the kids enjoyed the change of scenery and different toys :) When we came downstairs, Aubrey and I colored while Jude played. We then went outside in the backyard and swung until lunchtime. We came back in, and I fixed lunch for all of us. We killed some more time, and then it was time to attempt naps. I didn't have high hopes for Jude's nap. My expectations were correct. It was more of the same from the rest of the week. I was SO frustrated and upset about Jude not going to sleep. He has taken good naps for a LONG time now, and I just had no clue why he had all of a sudden stopped going to sleep on his own. Especially now when I'm at the end of my pregnancy and very tired. Ha! I know I sound so whiny, but I didn't have a great attitude that afternoon. Just being honest. Aubrey slept again. Once I finally got Jude to sleep, he took a short nap. I think I dozed while Jude napped? I don't even remember! When Jude got up, I got Aubrey up too. I got us all ready, and then we went to church to meet David. He was teaching karate for my dad's ministry, and I was going to a lady's function that night. David didn't have time to get home before I needed to leave, so we just traded cars at church :) My mom met me at church, and we got some dinner at Sonic before our meeting. A lady for our church had recently been to China, and she was giving a report on her trip. We met at another lady's house and had snacks, and it was really fun! Honestly, it had been a long week, and I was just happy to be out of the house. When I got home, the kids were asleep, and David said Jude went down without a peep. He did wake up after I got home. I think he can smell me and he just doesn't sleep well when I'm at home? Haha! Just kidding. I told David about my evening and he told me about their's. Then we went to bed.

Friday: We had plans to have lunch with Sarah Denley, and I was so happy to be getting out of the house! Jude got up pretty early, but he didn't get out of bed until 7:30 again. I'm hoping consistency is key! We got ready and met SD and her kids at Broadstreet. It was pretty crowded and we had to lug the kids and all of our stuff upstairs, but we had a lot of fun! Aubrey knocked a bottle of Tabasco Sauce on the floor and broke it. Oops! I did clean it up with wet wipes -- yuck! We even made a stop in the bathroom on the way out, and we weren't in there for 30 minutes! Whoo! ;) Jude fell asleep in the car, and I was planning to transfer him to his bed, but as right as I was getting him out of his carseat, someone fired up a lawn mower, and it roused him. Then Aubrey was really loud, and that woke him up even more. I tried rocking him, but he never went all the way back to sleep, and I knew he wasn't going to. I put Aubrey in her room and left Jude in his for a while. Then I gave up and got him up. We played until time to get Aubrey up. She was asleep, but we went ahead and woke her up. She seemed so sleepy and didn't want to get up, so I left her for 30 minutes. I went back to her room and woke up her again and she STILL didn't want to get up. David was almost home by that point, so I told her I would send him up to get her when he got home. Jude and I went downstairs and waited for David. When he got home, he went up and got Aubrey. She perked up, but she was a little on the grumpy side. We had a Sunday School pizza and game night at church that night, and we got ready for that. We were literally walking out the door when David asked me of Aubrey felt warm. I had thought the same thing, but I chalked it up to her just being warm from her nap. We figured we better check her temp before we took her around a lot of other kids, and sure enough, she had fever :( That explained the tiredness/grumpiness. We were bummed to miss our Sunday School get together! We gave Aubrey Advil and decided to go to the park since we were all ready to leave the house. We went to a park close to our house that is never crowded and we were the only ones there. Aubrey was feeling great after the medicine, and she and Jude had fun playing! David and I had a good conversation about God's will and our beliefs on that, which was spurred on by a lunch convo with SD :) We stayed at the park until dark, and then we got pizza from Mellow Mushroom. I had my heart set on pizza since that's what we were supposed to have at church that night. Mellow Mushroom was so good, but it probably wasn't as good as the homemade pizza they had at church! When we got home, we realized that Jude felt warm too, so we gave him medicine and put both kids to bed. They slept pretty good actually!

Saturday: David got up with the kids and took them to Wal-Mart. I slept until 10 and it was heavenly! They got home shortly after I got up. Aubrey was supposed to go to a birthday party that afternoon, but since she had fever the night before, we had to skip :( I was sad for Aubrey because I know she would have had fun, but I hadn't mentioned it to her in advance, so thankfully there was no disappointment. We laid low and hung out at home all day. We ate lunch at home and then put the kids down for naps. Jude went down easily (whoo!), but he slept very restlessly and kept waking up. I went to Smoothie King and got a smoothie while the kids napped, and David worked on painting a table for Alaina's room that we had started a few weeks ago. When Aubrey and Jude got up, we hung out at home some more. I made a meal plan and a grocery list, and then I took a shower and went to Kroger. When I got home, we unloaded the groceries, and then I cooked breakfast for dinner. It was good! The kids ate fairly well, and then we played until bedtime. Jude had trouble going to sleep :( We had to rock him several times before he actually went to sleep. David and I discussed which one of us would go to church the next morning, and then we went to bed.