Hello, Monday

Have you heard about this? I can't stop thinking about it. Twice the size of Texas! What I don't understand is how something like this could be sitting in the middle of the Pacific and no one knows or cares.

You know what else I don't understand? Why Sunday night is always such a terrible night for sleeping. Good sleep on a Sunday is crucial to getting the week off to a good start. But Sunday is also transition day, so the girls are exhausted and suffering from some kind of Daddy hangover.

They collapse into sleep early but then one wakes in the middle of the night. Usually it's Naomi, because she's always been a terrible sleeper and she'll always be a terrible sleeper. So she woke up around midnight and Miriam followed shorty after.

Because my bed is a bit more crowded some nights I have set up a kind of makeshift trundle bed for when nightmares attack. Usually this is fine, a movie and a glass of water is enough, until they start pushing and fight for bed space and then Miriam comes up and pours  water on my head or screams directly into my eardrum just as I am drifting off to sleep again.

That went on last night until the sky began to lighten. The moment I realized they were both asleep, no one was going to scream or jump on my head or decide my aching back might be a good place for a wild pony ride, I let out a huge sigh and melted blissfully into sleep. I got a whole hour.

So I'm tired, cranky, and my back hurts and I feel terribly, terribly guilty. I'm thinking a little preemptive benadryl on Sunday nights might not be a bad idea, a week off to suck a bad start isn't good for anyone.

I'm also pretty sure than I'm not cut out for the job of being the caretaker of young children. Some of the things I said last night were unforgivable.

Comments

[Casey]

OMG. I learned about the Eastern Garbage Patch last year, and I think about it pretty much every day. Freaks my shit out.

Sorry about the sleep troubles. That really sucks.

[jesspond]

LOL...I feel you. We've got younger ones, but we've had sleep WARS here lately. And it sucks.

A little preemptive benedryl or tylenol...not the worst idea ever. For sure.

That Garbage Patch thing? Crazy.

[Cecily]

You know my husband is obsessed with that thing, right? OBSESSED. Drives me batty.

Have you tried Melatonin with the kids? I've used it with Tori sometimes with far better success than Benadryl. Not the crappy CVS kind but the good sublingual kind they sell at Whole Foods. The pills are 2.5 mgs and kids can take 1/4 to 1/2 a pill depending on their age (your kids are probably old enough to do half, and truthfully, Tori's done a half no problem). It tastes like a mint so she loves it, and it gives her a solid 6-8 hours of peaceful non-druggy sleep. LIFE SAVER. :D

[Kateri]

yeah, cecily, my kids get melatonin. at first it gave them great sleep (and it did actually solve miriam's trouble she was having with needing a good hysterical cry before she could nod off) but naomi's response to melatonin is sometimes to have vivid nightmares, and sometimes she wakes miriam up before she calms down.

[Kate]

I didn't know about Garbage Patch. Wow. I'll never look at another plastic bag again without thinking of it.

I've been a regular at TMC for some time. I can't even bring myself to confess some of my awfulness there though. I'm not cut out for parenting young kids either. I fervently hope that I'll do better when with older, less dependent children.

[Lilian]

Oh dear, I'm sorry you continue to have sleep problems and that melatonin is not longer helping much... what time do you get them back on Sunday? Would getting them back a bit earlier and doing some calm activity help? (that's the only lame thing I can think of).

Anyway... I do feel the same way sometimes, that I'm not cutout to care for little ones, but thankfully the feeling passes and only comes back when other nightmarish moments take place. I'm a really terrible disciplinarian, that's for sure...

Oh yeah, that garbage place in the ocean. Have you heard about the islands-full of baby birds many of whom die because their mommy birds feed them plastic unaware it's not food? It's literally giving me nightmares ever since I heard it on NPR...