Battle Sleep

As you can imagine, nights with two children have been an interesting adjustment. A three year old who will not sleep through the night alone and a growing newborn was bound to be tricky but we're entering disaster territory here. Before getting into bed every night I feel like we are suiting up for battle: diaper caddy locked and loaded? Check. Bra stuffed with enough pads to keep me relatively dry? Check, check. Extra burp cloths, nipple shield and a pacifier at the ready? Check, check, check. 

Chris and I start off in bed together and try to fall asleep as quickly as possible before one or both of the kids require our attention. Our "good nights" have been replaced with "good luck" and I'm not lying when I say we mean it. It has been a game of musical beds (Spencer and I in our bed, Eloise and Chris in her bed, Spencer in his crib, Spencer and I in Eloise's bed, Eloise, Chris, Spencer and I in our bed together) every night since we brought Spencer home and neither Chris nor I seems to have found a solution to our sleeping arrangements. Eloise still insists on being put down in her bed, a now ridiculous exercise as we all know she will sleep in there for just a few hours before coming to find me. Trying to set a good precedent we have been putting Spencer in his crib at the same time as Eloise goes to sleep but this only lasts an hour or so before he is up again. A few hours after that Eloise wakes up which in turn means I have to wake Chris up (he sleeps through everything) and we have to work fast to decide who's sleeping where and whisk Eloise back to bed before she is fully awake. Meanwhile, Spencer is up to feed and needs a change typically every two-ish hours, so I only ever get a taste of sleep before I am up again. 

Some nights are better than others but last night wasn't great. Spencer was up every two hours on the dot and required two complete outfit changes thanks to leaking diapers and milk spills. I smell like milk and our sheets need to be changed but looking down at my now perfect sleeping boy (go figure) it's pretty easy to get over it. I guess I'll sleep when they grow up and in the meantime, pass the coffee.