New Year's Eve

Last night, we celebrated the New Year with some friends of ours that also have little ones around Cale's age. We just hung out, ate, and listened to the musical sound of toddler screams, tantrums, but also lots of laughter. The kids actually made it until like 11:15, and really even then they weren't too moody. I was quite surprised because I really expected Cale to begin to meltdown after 9:00. After everyone left, I had the chore of getting Cale to go to sleep. Which is really less like a chore, because a chore is something that you must do, but can usually get done easily. No, putting Cale to bed lately is more like climbing up Mt. Everest (not that I ever have, but I can imagine...); It's dreadful, uncomfortable, darn near impossible, time-consuming, and leaves me feeling completely worn out in the end. After about 30 minutes of Cale tossing, turning, flopping, bouncing up and down, begging me to lay by him and then whining because I wasn't laying exactly where he wanted me to lay, he finally quieted down enough that I was able to leave the room.

On a side note, the toddler-bed experience, although suspiciously easy in the beginning, has gradually turned into a nightmare. When we put Cale to bed lately, he won't stay. He gets up, turns off his sound machine which emits calming ocean waves which never seem to calm him. Then, he opens his door, shuts it behind him, opens the hall door, shuts it behind him, and comes to find us. We scoop him up, take him right back to bed at which time he begins to cry as he realizes we are actually going to make him go to sleep. The other night, this happened at least 5 times. He's a persistent little fellow. Carl finally had to hold Cale down in bed to get him to stay there. The torturous sounds coming from Cale were hard for this mama to listen to but apparently it worked because he finally stayed in bed and went to sleep. When Carl walked out of Cale's room that night he said that as he held Cale down, he calmly explained that he loved him, but he had to stay in bed and go to sleep. Cale, crying pitfully, said, "No, you don't love me." It broke Carl's heart. He already knows how to work us.

Right now, bedtime is bad, but middle of the night is even more painful. About every other night, Cale has been waking and coming into our room. He won't sleep with us, but wants one of us to come back to his room with him to lay with him. This may not sound so bad, but have you ever tried to comfortably lay in a toddler bed? Especially big and pregnant? It's not pretty and I CAN NOT fall asleep in that thing. And the minute you try to leave, Cale realizes and starts crying immediately and chases you back out, begging for you to come back. A couple of nights last week Cale was awake for more than 2 hours. It was a bad week for rest in the Kirtley household. Good news for me is that I've discovered my husband has the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime. So, I've been sending him in with Cale in the middle of the night and he climbs into Cale's toddler bed and actually goes to sleep. A 32, almost 33, year old man sleeping in a toddler bed. With a wiggly toddler who flips and flops all night. The things you do for your kids. And for sleep. We take what we can get around here!

Back to New Year's Eve, I finally got Cale to calm down and go to sleep, only to have him awaken and show up at our door couple of hours later. So, I dragged myself into his room, laid down on his bed with him and waited. About 20 minutes later, Cale was in a deep enough sleep that I snuck out, successfully. Then, at 6:15, the same thing happened again. So, I sent my sleep-gifted husband in with Cale to his bed and we actually got to sleep until almost 8:00! 8:00 to us, is like 10:00 to normal people. I think we're going to have to invest in a different bed for Cale already. Either a twin or maybe even a full size bed because the toddler bed just isn't cutting it!