Oh sleeping...

Well, if you've been with us for a while, you know that we've had sleeping issues since Tate was born. We ended up doing co-sleeping from the time Tate outgrew his bassinet co-sleeper thing until just a few months ago. We moved him to a twin mattress on the floor of his own room and he took to it surprisingly well. For a while. And then not so much. We originally moved him to his own bed and room because he would wake up all night screaming and crying. Thought maybe he would do better on his own where no one would be disturbing his sleep. Recently, we've been to see the homeopathic PT and a sleep doctor. He's been on a homeopathic sleep aid called Neurexan for about 3-4 weeks. It stopped working about 3 nights ago. AJ and I take turns being on "Tate duty" for the night. Monday night, AJ was up with him half the night and finally put him in his bed around 4. Tuesday night, I was up half the night with him and finally went and slept in his bed at about 3. Being 6 months pregnant and already having back pain issues, I just cannot be getting up and down all night with Tate and I certainly can't be sharing a twin mattress on the floor with a 2 year old. I'm also already starting to have the pregnancy insomnia where I have trouble sleeping and I get up to pee 2-3 times a night.

So, basically our nights look like Tate wakes up crying which wakes me up (whether it's my night with him or not), I get up to pee, Lexi wakes up and kicks like crazy for a while, and I'm awake for 15-45 minutes. This happens anywhere from 1-12 times each night. Since the sleep medicine stopped working and we're already trying reflux meds to see if that makes a difference, we are basically out of options. We're back to either AJ or I (or both) being absolutely exhausted everyday. And my main concern is that Tate is so tired and it affects his daily functioning. He does okay during the day, but the bags under his eyes by the time he gets home from daycare are absolutely ridiculous. And then he's fussy and lethargic all evening. I just want my toddler to be well rested and happy and able to enjoy life to the fullest.

I really didn't know what to do so we took the only suggestion from the sleep doctor that we hadn't tried and moved Tate's mattress to my room. The idea is that he falls asleep with one of us and then needs that same thing to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. We had avoided this option since he had done so well with the move to his room. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And this mama is getting desperate. So, in he came. We removed the nightstand, shoved the bed up against the wall, and put down Tate's mattress. Last night was our first night with this latest sleeping arrangement. And he did great! He still woke up lots, but since he's right there, I hear him start to stir and make noise and I can just say "shh-shh-shh" and he was able to go back to sleep on his own. He did cry out 2-3 times, but I was able to poke my head up, say a few words and lay back down. Very. very. nice. Hopefully tonight will go smoothly as well. The biggest downfall to this plan is that I now have Tate duty every night. And I have no idea where we go from here and what we do when Lexi arrives. But, I guess we take it one day/week/month at a time and figure it out as we go.

I will admit (shh don't tell!) that it was VERY nice having my baby back in my room with me. I loved co-sleeping and I missed him when he moved to his own room. If we can figure out how to have 2 babies in my room and still let everyone sleep, I'm fine with that. They're only little once! :)