nighttime parenting....

When Claire was a baby, she woke up like clock work at 10pm, 2am and 6am.  I fed her, rocked her and she went back to sleep.  I learned to pray through my list of intercession during the night when I was awake.

When Isaac was a baby, he was awake every hour all night long.  He wanted to nurse and he was fretful and uncomfortable.  I didn't have the gumption to pray through my list.....I learned to sleep with him on my chest.....

When Jeremiah was a baby, he had nights where he just couldn't stay asleep.  He would cry, fret, fuss......and eventually I would take him to the couch and put on a movie and prop him up behind me....and try to sleep.  His favorite movie was called"  Because of Winn Dixie"....and I haven't watched that movie for almost a decade.  I miss it....and I almost miss those middle of the night dates with this sweet boy who is now almost a teen.

When Precious was a baby, she was awake almost every hour, she only slept on my chest or in my arms, she awoke the minute I left the bed......and Roger and I learned that we could take every other night shift by the time she was 6 months old, instead of trading off at 3am.....I learned that I can function on very little sleep.  I learned that I can only parent in a 2 parent home.....I would fail as a single mom.

When Josiah was a baby......he just couldn't sleep alone.  Ever.  Not for his birth mom, not for us.....and by then we had given up on good sleep without kids in bed.  Now....we just play magical chairs but our version is "magical beds"....and we are finding sleep by some miracle of Grace.

Last night, we all settled in by 11pm.  At 1am the schnoodle, Jedi went barking into the back yard.....and Roger and I both heard him.  At 2am, Josiah woke up and had to go potty....and had peed in the bed and in his shorts....and wanted milk....and Roger got him settled because if I got up, so would Precious.....then at 3am, Lexi the Shephard started barking and raced outside again.  I worried that the neighbors might call the cops for noise......but she eventually came back in.  At 4am, Precious woke up saying, "mom, my brain can't sleep because my tummy is so hungry!".....so we were up, warming up leftover pizza and getting milk and I was trying to be kind and generous and good but mostly I was crabby and desperate.  

Today I did my work day in the middle of desperate exhaustion....and I think that its been a version of that for about 16 years now.  Oh my.