Go to sleeeep, little Jacob....go to sleep liiitle Jacob.....

At the beginning of this week, I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever sleep again. My little Jacob, my precious little peanut whose mommy was bragging to the whole world about what a good sleeper he was (at least during the day...which, really, I'll take what I can get) suddenly abandoned his afternoon naps. This is not OK. Naptime in our house is PRECIOUS TIME WHICH I DO NOT GIVE UP EASILY. I am not one of those "go with the flow" moms who is happy to see her child sleeping when he needs it but can deal with the days when he doesn't. No no no. Naptime in the Troy household is at 1pm. Sharp. No negotiations.

I CRAVE this routine. I THRIVE on this routine. (And, luckily, so does Christopher.)

Oh, the wonderfulness that was having two babies sleep at the same time! But then, to my dismay, Jacob decided that, no, he would not sleep. Not until about 4:00. You know, when Christopher wakes up. He would eat and sit in his chair and look around and coo. You know, all that cute little baby stuff. But he would not sleep. AND! We even were starting to get into that dangerous territory of him falling asleep in my arms but then waking up immediately upon the transfer to the chair. I've done that whole thing before. We're not going there again.

With Christopher, there was no such thing as a daytime nap until he was 5 months old. That was rough. However, he did sleep quite well at night - a trade off that I was very happy with. That being said, one would think that it would be reasonable to expect similar behaviour from Jacob. ONE WOULD BE WRONG.

Two nights ago, he slept his normal three-hour first stretch, getting up the first time at midnight. And then he got up EVERY HOUR ON THE HOUR from that point forward. THE NEXT DAY HE DID NOT NAP. There was much groaning and gnashing of teeth, you can be sure. I was beginning to think that my life was seriously over. That I would just stay awake until I faded into oblivion. Seriously. If Descartes was right, then my lack of ability to maintain ANY thought in my mind would cause me to simply fade away. (Which, at least then maybe I'd get some rest.)

With a few nights like that behind me, you can imagine my SHEER DELIGHT when Jacob fell asleep during his lunch yesterday and STAYED! ASLEEP! for the chair transfer. You can also imagine my UTTER HORROR when his dad (my darling husband whom I adore) MOVED HIS CHAIR ACROSS THE ROOM AND WOKE. HIM. UP. Thus, no nap for baby. And, selfishly...but honestly....no nap for mommy. I informed said husband that he would be responsible for some serious pampering of the wife later that night to make up for his indiscretion.

Naturally, my darling came down with a splitting headache later that afternoon (it really was bad and I really did feel for him - even to the point of forgetting about the pampering that I wasn't getting). This headache lead to less attention being paid to Christopher's post-bath pee in the tub, which lead to the following course of events:

(Deep breath in....)

1. Christopher pees on my bed, through the sheets to the mattress pad.
2. Husband feels sick, due to headache, goes downstairs to make sure he doesn't die.
3. I clothe Christopher, read him stories, put him in bed, race through changing of sheets because of screaming baby downstairs who is not assisting the daddy with the headache.
4. Finally got the bed made while thinking, "there is no mattress pad on my bed. Something bad is going to happen tonight."
5. Get husband to bed.
6. Get baby to bed.
7. SLEEP. FOR FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT. PRAISED BE JESUS!
8. Wake up at 2:00am to change baby's diaper.
9. Place blanket under baby's bottom to avoid poop on the bed (I learned that lesson last week.) Get nailed my missile poop that OVERSHOOTS the blanket straight to the sheet (and my jammies).
10. Whisper choice selection of swear words.
11. Scramble to get new jammies for baby, new jammies for mommy, towels to go between mattress and poop sheet. Blanket to go between poop sheet and my clean jammies.
12. Swear some more.
13. Get baby back to bed, where he sleeps for THREE MORE HOURS.
14. Get up.
15. Feed baby and replace in crib where he sleeps for TWO MORE HOURS.
16. Awake, happily, to realize (unhappily) that I have to wash both poo-poo sheets and pee-pee sheets all in one day.

All of that being said, I can't complain too much. Jacob took a morning, afternoon, and dinner time nap today. AND he's asleep right now. Knock on wood.

On the Christopher front:
Today he used his own "imaginary color finding goggles" to help the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang replace all of the colors of the rainbow, ran around Babies-R-Us like the biggest boy you've ever seen, and made his mommy cry because of his beautiful reverence for Jesus and Momma Mary in adoration. OH - AND when I said to him, "Say Pizza!" His response was "Peee!" Close enough for me.

Next time: My Love Affair with Ebay. Happy Weekend!