Crying All Night
When my 1 year old son L started to come down with the stomach flu shortly after his first birthday party, I needed to take care of him while my wife was going through the rough beginning stages of it herself. I needed a way to make sure L got his sleep while our 6 year old daughter E and 4 year old son C stayed out of her room all night. The idea I concluded with was that I would sleep with L in the same room E and C were sleeping in and we would try to rough it all together so my wife could have some peace.
The night started out fine after I put E and C to sleep. I had L and tried to make sure he was thoroughly tired before walking into the room E and C were sleeping in. Once I walked in (and since it was a new environment), L did not want to sleep! He wanted to look around and party even though he wasn’t feeling well. I had to wrangle his body and pat him to sleep. Eventually, he fell asleep without waking the others, so the crisis was averted.
I eventually fell asleep myself, but after two hours, I woke up to L screaming. He was not happy about something and freaked out. I was patting his back while shushing him. I was also rocking him as best as I could while laying on the ground. Somehow, E and C slept through about 30 minutes of this, but as the screaming and crying from L continued, they woke up.
C was trying to be sweet and offered different studies or suggestions to calm L down. We tried them for a bit, but nothing seemed to work. E was also trying to troubleshoot, but lucky for her, she was a bit further away from the crying. We all endured about 40 minutes of crying together and I reminded E and C that this was the exact thing my wife had to deal with every night. That’s why they should be really nice to their Mommy because it’s hard to function without getting proper sleep. It was a realization for them that it’s hard to take care of a baby - something they have continued to say over the last few days.
Eventually, my wife hears all the commotion and comes over to grab L. She says she felt better after getting some uninterrupted sleep and she went back to clam L down. The rest of us went back to sleep as best as we could with a new appreciation of what my wife (and their Mommy) does every night. I’ll keep reminding E and C to use their listening ears, especially when they are dealing with their sleep deprived Mommy. It’s the best way to help out.
