Well-Timed Miracle

Well, eventually the headache did go away, long after the kids went to bed for the night.  It ended up being a pretty trying day.  By late afternoon when PJ hadn’t napped (after getting up early) and BabyN’s afternoon nap ended very prematurely, I was ready to lose it.  And I did snap when both of them started screaming at the top of their lungs over nothing.

The good news is that I saw it coming.  I felt myself going out of control, so I moved both boys to their room where they could scream without bothering me over it.  They were safe from the unreasonable anger I suddenly felt.  For the first time all day I had a few minutes alone, even if I spent it racked in guilt over the hysterical screams I heard from the next room over.

Five minutes and one phone call to M later, I was over it.  My head was still pounding and I still needed a nap more than anything, but I was in control again.  Of course, I spent the next half hour or so paying for those five minutes to recover; it took that long to calm down PJ who didn’t know why he was being punished for throwing a tantrum over a button.

When M got home, he was kind enough to give me ten minutes alone to cry off the stress of the afternoon, and we both agreed that since the boys hadn’t napped well, if at all, it was a good night to send them to bed nearly an hour early.  It was probably more for our sanity than their lack of sleep, though.

I fully expected a repeat today when BabyN woke me from an extremely light sleep at 2 this morning.  I had just barely gotten to sleep and didn’t foresee that happening again any time soon.  I knew that after so little sleep, I was going to be short on patience today, regardless of whether or not the headache decided to make a comeback.  When PJ was awake at the crack of dawn when BabyN woke up crying again, I knew my prediction had to be true.

I said a quick prayer as I closed the door to his room, leaving him inside and rescuing BabyN for his morning feeding.  “Please go back to sleep, just this once.  Please!”

Mercifully, he got quiet almost right away, even though I doubted he would sleep.  BabyN went right back to sleep after the feeding, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open either.

Several hours later, BabyN woke me up.  I was worried that PJ was upset after being awake in his room alone that long, but when I went to check on him, he was asleep.  Opening the door to his room didn’t disturb him in the least.

He continued to sleep until 11 this morning.  That’s quite a miracle!  I was right that he was in desperate need of sleep after yesterday, and I’m glad I made the decision to leave him in his room this morning, even if it was out of desperation.

So far today, both boys have been pretty well-behaved.  Although I suspect I still have a short fuse today from my own lack of sleep (even sleeping late didn’t help catch me up much), neither boy is testing it yet.  I hope they both nap well today too so that we can have a good start to our weekend without drama like last night.