Busy Days and Sleepless Nights

The last couple of weeks have been somewhat insane.

Earlier this month, we had our first fundraiser of the year for March for Babies.  We had a spaghetti and Bingo feed that raised over $500.  Considering that it required only a little bit of effort and was a ton of fun, I'd say that's a good night!

The week of it though, was rough.  I didn't realize how much I had taken on having an infant, 2 year old and 8 year old, plus waiting until the last minute to do much of the work really took it's toll on me.

In the weeks since then, we've been busy every single day.  I've been cleaning the carpets every week, I've made 8 outfits for Rosie the Moose, I've been grocery shopping, errand running, low calorie and low fat dinner cooking, full time cloth diapering for two'ing, starting the landscaping and parenting 3 beautiful little girls.

I keep thinking, "Ok, as soon as this week is over, next week will be easier."  Who am I kidding?  Obviously, this is how I like things.  And that's ok.

What makes it hard is lack of sleep.  I love sleep.  A full nights is just amazing.  I adore everything about waking up rested to take on the day.  Kaitlyn is a great sleeper.  She can sleep anywhere and is out most nights by 9 without anyone asking her to go to bed.  She sleeps through the night and wakes up at 7:30 in a good mood most days.  Charlotte is a great sleeper.  She is asleep most nights by 9 and sleeps until about 6:30.  In her own little bed in our room.  She barely moves through the night.  It's great.  As I've wrote before, Samantha is a horrible sleeper. 

Samantha's sleep was getting better for a little bit and then got worse.  Last week, after going several days of her sleeping only 4-6 hours in a 24 hour period, I made her a doctor's appointment to discuss some options.
I had been considering utilizing melatonin, but read so much conflicting research on it for 2 year olds that it made me nervous.  It made our doctor a little nervous as well.  So, we decided for now to use a little benadryl to try and help her get sleepy at night and see how that goes after a month.  That was Monday.  Last night was the first night she slept through.  So, we shall see.  She also has these "spells" where she just stares into space and you cannot get her attention.  Nothing you do matters, she doesn't blink, she just stares.  I assumed it was because she was so tired she would just phase us all out.  I was unaware that it could possibly be a form of seizures.  Her doctor thinks it's unlikely but we're going to see a pediatric neurologist just to rule it out.

We went about a week and a half of full time cloth diapering both.  It was a lot more work than I anticipated.  Staying on top of the laundry with a little one who spits up constantly was hard enough, washing 20+ diapers a day made it only harder.  So, for now, Samantha is in pull ups and slowly working on potty training and Charlotte is in cloth.  If we're going to be out of the house for more than 6 hours, we'll use disposable.  I honestly prefer cloth, but I'm also all about saving some time lately.

Life has been busy, exhausting and just amazing.