Mother's Day & Sleep Deprivation

I always think it's ironic that for Mother's Day the best gift I can receive is a day "off" from being a mother.  Thankfully Jake understands this and spoiled me all day.  I slept a lot and didn't change a single diaper!

That morning I was looking in our office for a specific bag to take to church.  I have no idea why I waited for the last minute to look for it, since I had been thinking about it all week.  After I found it I opened it up and saw a 3 ring binder from when I used to teach the 14-15 yr old Sunday School class.  As I lifted it out of the bag an envelope fell out of it onto the floor.  The outside said "My Jenni" in my dad's handwriting.  I opened it up and found a letter he wrote to me back when I was prego with the twirls.  When he was on a business trip out here and he came to my Sunday School class.  I can't remember what the lesson was about, but I had the class each write a letter for something or other.  Anyways, my dad used that time in my lesson to write me a letter.  It is very special to me and what a tender mercy to find it on Mother's Day!  It made me feel so loved and connected to my family.

We went to church and the girls were AWFUL!  Like the worst they've been on Sunday in a long time.  All three of them.  Happy Mother's Day!!!  Sunday's are our biggest hurdle right now.  The twirls sleep from 2-4 and church is from 1-4.  So they are a mess.  We try laying them down earlier but they don't always fall asleep and if they do it's not long enough.  So by the time nursery rolls around they are past the point of no return.  In addition, Scarlett was exhausted from staying up late on Saturday combined with waking up early on Sunday.  So right after Sacrament Meeting all three girls were SCREAMING in the hallway.  There was no bribe, no threat, no distraction that could pull them together.  Jake and I had a quick meeting with a member of the Bishopric right then, so we took our girls cause I didn't think it was fair to dump them on some other moms who are trying to have a nice mother's day.  We sat in this tiny classroom fighting our tantrum trio while Bro. Lowder asked me to serve as the YW Laurel Adviser (whoo hoo!) I'm glad that he wasn't phased and we just ignored the kids.  After our little meeting, I was feeling like a lousy mother - what a special day!  So we just left and went home.  I don't like leaving church early (rewarding bad behavior), but for our girls it was the best option that day.  We took them straight home and put them all in their beds to take a nap.  Then I took a nap too!  Blessed naps!

After waking up we had a lovely evening.  The girls got me flowers (Siena loving the airplane).  One of my friends bought me this shirt for Christmas.  I felt like it was a good day to rock it.

So for the past few weeks Jake and I have been working on ways to help the girls get quality sleep.  We really haven't figured out what to do with the twirls.  Right now our plan is to always have one of us in nursery with them so the leaders don't have to deal with them all exhausted and irrational.  At least til we go to Utah.  Then we'll re-evaluate when we get home.  But if you have any advice or suggestions - we are desperate!

Scarlett's big problem is that she's been waking up at night cause she's scared of noises or the dark, then she comes to our room and sleeps on the little mattress we have for her on the floor.  Usually the whole process of crying, waking us up, moving all her belongings down the hall, going potty, falling back asleep takes an hour.  So she's not getting good, restful, and uninterrupted sleep (and neither are we!)  Well I was soooo upset at her irrational screaming at church that day (I mean, really upset) that I told her when we got home that dad was taking the mat to the basement and she couldn't sleep on our floor anymore.  That night she woke up crying and I would have let her just come to my room (I have no conviction at 2am) but since the mat was in the basement I spent like an hour in her room helping her fall back asleep.  

Over the next week we really struggled with her waking up and helping her stay in her room.  We woke up with her in our bed a few times.  I was trying to figure out what would motivate her to stay in her bed.  One morning she said "I really want to have a sleep over in the babes room."  Eureka!  There was my answer.  I told her that if she could sleep in her room all week, then she could have a sleep over with her sisters.

To help her with this new goal (and to address some of her fears at night) we changed a few things.  We let her keep her door all the way open.  I bought her another night light - this one projects a picture of Else and Anna on her ceiling.  I also bought her a little CD player.  I have some lullaby CDs but we had no way of playing them.  One of her fears at night is she's scared of noises.  I was thinking that if she gets used to falling asleep with music, then she'll be more comfortable with dynamic ambient noise. 

The light and the CD player worked wonders!!!  She gets so excited to pick a CD and she really hasn't woken up at night since we added them.  She earned her sleep over!!!  It was a holiday weekend so we moved the sleep over to Sunday night.  Well, that Sunday during Junior Primary another Sunbeam didn't want to give the opening prayer, so Scarlett volunteered.  We didn't know she was going to pray, so we weren't there.  But Jamie called me after to tell us what a great job she did and how she even said "please let us have a good sleepover with the babies".  hahaha!!!  It's funny cause the week before was her assigned Sunday to give the opening prayer.  She was a tired mess (prior to our CD player plan) and she was acting shy.  I told her she didn't have to go up there, but she really wanted to "talk to her friends in the microphone".  So when she finally got up there in her tired and shy state she went to the microphone and said her prayer - without moving her lips at all!!!  haha!!!  So when Jamie called the next week to tell me about her prayer, I was glad to hear that she was able to pray while moving her lips this time!

This was right before her sleep over - she was so excited.  And Jake told me that I looked dressed for the WWF:

All tucked in - her old crib mattress in her tent (this is as close to camping as we get).

The twirls - they just love these little puppies that Jamie bought them.  I have tried SEVERAL different stuffed animals in their beds - but these are the only animals they like to hug and snuggle.  They will squeeze them and say "awwww".  Cute!  Jamie made little green and yellow collars for them.  Darling!

The morning after her sleep over, Scarlett came in our room and said "I slept great mom!"  Glad to hear it!  Since these photos she's earned her second sleep over.  That also went well (the twirls were wired and jumped in their beds for an hour before I went in there and tucked them back in bed but Scarlett was sound asleep!)