Sleep & Lots of Laughter

It is day three home and we finally got almost a full night of sleep. Gracie was up for only one hour from midnight until one and then Carter was up at 4:30 but John said he went back to sleep pretty quickly. Carter is having a hard time that he isn't sleeping with all of us any longer and Gracie Lin just hates the crib. Parker has been a trouper! Even though he's waking up he's handling himself well during the day! The time adjustment for five people has been difficult to say the least but there have been many comical moments.

First night home: Grandpa Marvin and Nanannette stayed with us to help out... Gracie Lin woke at midnight and Nanannette did a great job of getting her back to sleep. However, I had failed to let her know that Gracie wasn't going back in that crib easily. So, I ended up going to get her shortly after. I vaguely remember between 12:30 and 2:30 but I think I brought her downstairs and just held her. At 2:30 Carter is screaming, "I wan Mama, I wan Mama!" Upstairs I go again with Gracie in tow. Carter immediately starts screaming, "I wan Daddy, I wan see Pawkew!" On and on that went so I brought him downstairs as well. I would just about get them to sleep on the sofa with me and one would move or roll onto the other and start the whole thing over.... Around 3:30 Nanannette came down to help. (She said, "Parker is in the hallway upstairs reading." Oh my! I asked her to take him a melatonin.) Her getting up to help wasn't very successful at the beginning but she was a new reason for them to stay up to see what was going on. :) Finally, Gracie Lin let Nanannette take her and walk her around about 4:30. Around that time, Carter finally went back to sleep. Gracie Lin's walk turned into, let's explore the house and check out everything. I heard her babbling and Nanannette pointing out things to her. Not likely she's going back to sleep with that going on but I just had to smile. They were happy! Annette ended up rocking her until 8:30 and Marvin took over until 9:00. We have to work on this crib thing.

Second night: I think everyone made it until about 2:30. Carter got out of bed and Parker realized he was moving. Parker thought he should stop Carter so basically tackled him in the hallway and made a huge crash. Marvin came out to check on them as I rushed by him to pick up a screaming baby girl. Carter wanted Daddy so he came up and brought Carter back to our bed. I tried to rock Gracie Lin back to sleep but she couldn't get sound enough to sleep for me to lay her down. I moved to the boys room because the rocker is more comfortable. We rocked and rocked and rocked. Around 4:30, I layed down in Carter's bed with her and she finally fell back asleep. I moved to the sofa again. :) Around 5:30, I finally gave up and just opened my computer to read. At 6:45 I heard Parker's feet hit the ground so I headed up the back stairs to keep him quiet. By the time I got up there, he was coming out of his closet fully dressed for school. He said, 'it's 7:48, we have to leave for school.' By this time, Marvin was up and the three of us just started the day. A few minutes later, John stumbles in. Marvin asked Parker what he wanted for breakfast and Parker started mumbling something about the morning before today and the same thing. We looked at him and said, what are you talking about? We just wanted to know what you want for breakfast. At this point, surviving on 4 hours of sleep per day for three days straight, I just started laughing and couldn't stop. Tears were streaming down my face - I have officially lost my mind! :)

Gracie Lin giving her big brother lots of love before school: