What a Night...

A full night's sleep hasn't existed for me for about 9 months now (going back to the last 2 months of my pregnancy). Some nights are better than others, though. And honestly, I can handle getting up and rubbing Ella's back for a few minutes and even feeding her around 4:00. What is not fun is when Ella cries for 20 or 30 minutes and Andrew won't sleep in his own bed so then he cries and they wake each other up. Last night was probably one of the worst; although this wasn't the first time something like this happened. Here is a replay of my night last night:

Andrew came to our bed probably somewhere between 12:30 and 12:45. I'm not exactly sure what time it was because I was too tired to move, so I just ignored the fact that he was there. At around 1:00, though, he was still very restless and kept hitting and kicking me. I picked him up and told him he needed to sleep in his own bed. Of course, he didn't want to, so I had to lay next to his bed until he fell asleep. He had to have his lamp on, the floor was hard, and it was cold, so it wasn't like I was going to fall asleep there. I laid there for a while and Andrew just kept tossing and turning and wouldn't go to sleep. He starts to doze off just about the time I hear Ella wake up. It's about 1:30 now. I go to her room, rub her back a little and she appears to be going back to sleep. I go back to my bed. Ella doesn't go to sleep and she keeps crying. I try to let her cry it out for a while, but then Andrew wakes up and comes running into my room. I tell him to stay in our bed while I try to get Ella to sleep. She cries and cries. I try to rub her back, rock her, let her cry. She cries for about 30-35 minutes (I keep going in to encourage her to sleep) before she falls asleep. Andrew is still awake in our bed. I take him to his bed and I have to lay next to his bed again. He keeps trying to talk to me and I keep telling him to go to sleep. He seems to be asleep so I go back to my bed. I lay down and what do I hear...little footprints running into my room. I take him back to his bed and lay by his bed again. He falls asleep (he seems to be sleeping pretty soundly this time). I sneak out successfully and lay down. It's about 3:00, which means I've been up for 2 hours. And you think it's over, right? No! Ella wakes up. At this point I'm so tired that I just get up and feed her. I don't want to go through the whole process of her crying for another 20-30 minutes and waking Andrew up. I quickly feed her. As I am feeding her, I see Andrew's shadow walk into our bedroom. Once I'm done feeding Ella, I am so tired and do not feel like fighting with Andrew. I grab a blanket from Ella's closet and head to the couch, leaving Andrew and Matt sleeping in our bed. I am so frustrated by this point, that I have trouble settling down to fall asleep. I finally fall asleep and then I have a dream that Andrew has gotten up looking for me and is in Ella's crib. So I get up just to be sure he's in our bed and he is. So I go back to the couch where it is quiet, warm, and no one is kicking me. I fall asleep; it's probably about 3:45-4:00 by now. A while later I hear Andrew coming down the hall, saying "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy". He comes walking in with puzzles acting like it is time to get up. I picked him, told him it was still night time, and went to my bed with him. It was 5:15 so only about 15 minutes before Matt was about to wake up. I get Andrew in our bed and tell him he needs to go to sleep. I lay down to go back to sleep and Ella wakes up! I get up, feed her, and come back to bed. I get to fall asleep, but not for long...Ella wakes up for the morning at 6:30.

Basically, from 1:00 to 6:30, I was able to sleep about 2 or 2 and a half hours. Every time that I curled back up in my nice warm bed and laid on my comfy pillow and thought I was going to get to back to sleep, either Andrew or Ella woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. Now this may sound unbelievable to some of you (especially if you are not a mom), but it's true. I promise it happened! And it was not fun. Now after writing all this, I'm exhausted and think I'll go take a short nap. And pray that it doesn't happen again tonight!!