Great Lafferty Family Sleepover Adventure

The 4th of July wasn't just one day of celebrating for us. It was a whole weekend of activities. On the 5th, we all packed up our bags and trekked over to Lenexa for the Great Lafferty Family Sleepover Adventure. What's that, you ask? Well, all of us, including me and Cory, slept over with Cory's parents at Cory's parents' house with his sister Amber and her boyfriend Tom. It was one full house.

Pat and Joan (Cory's parents) had the whole evening planned out with myriad events and activities. Balloon toss, tie-dyeing, slip-and-slide, bubbles ... you name it was probably on the list. We were not to be bored during this adventure.

First up was tie-dyeing. Molly had actually learned how to tie-dye at Daisy Girl Scout camp this summer, so she was very excited to do it again. We all got pillowcases, and then I read the instructions that came with the kit. I don't know if it will shock you or not, but I am always the only one who reads instructions in this family for games, crafts or putting together furniture. Why everyone doesn't do this, I could not tell you. C'mon people. They have instructions for a reason!

Tom and Amber working on their pillowcases.

Molly and Charlotte. Charlotte was very concerned with the gloves she had to wear.

Showing them how it's done when you read the instructions!

Next on the agenda was the water balloon toss. We don't have that many pictures of that because, well, we were all throwing water balloons everywhere.

Charlotte and Molly staking out the water balloons.

Trying to get everyone lined up for the game.

Then: the bean bag toss.

Charlotte's skills.

Somehow Amber and Tom got on a team together. You'd think that would make them front-runners. You'd be wrong.

Molly was very serious.

Eh, I was not.

As we were finishing the bean bag toss, Molly kept questioning who was winning. Like constantly. I mean, I have no idea where she could possibly get that competitive streak from. Er, oh, yeah, perhaps it was my awesome display of parental modeling from the day before at the 4th of July race. Whoops.

Sweet Dora, Sweet Dreams?

Ok, I know you all know how "challenging" Charlotte is. She knows her mind, and her mind cannot be changed once it's made up. One day, I know I am truly going to appreciate that she isn't easily swayed by other's opinions. And, one day, it will probably serve her very well as CEO of some Fortune 500 company. However, while we are in the midst of potty-training and trying to get her to sleep through the night in her own bed, I am not as impressed with this trait of my darling baby girl's.

Sleep has been an issue for Charlotte for as long as I can remember. (Though, my memory isn't the greatest considering I rarely ever get a full night's sleep.) She started crawling out of her crib when she was not even 18-months-old, so we had to change the crib into a toddler bed a full year and  half before we had done it with Molly.

(And, to be fair, Molly never did crawl out of her crib. It just got to be a little ridiculous to have a 3-year-old in a crib. Well, I say never, but I do swear there was one time she did and came to visit me in the middle of the night, but Cory swears it never happened, and I was just dreaming it. That issue is still up for debate.)

But, once we changed Charlotte's crib into a toddler bed (it was one of those fancy schmancy convertible cribs), she never slept in the bed. Maybe never is too strong of a word, but it was incredibly rare, and for the last 6 months, never is completely accurate. She slept anywhere but her own bed. And, most nights, she slept on the floor. Yes, the floor. Do not ask me why that would possibly be more comfortable. I was at a loss.

Charlotte slept everywhere. Except her own bed.

She slept ...

on the floor beside her bed.

on top of my bed.

on her sister's bed while sister was at school.

in the car.

in the car some more.

in the car even more.

on the chaise in our bedroom.

on the floor beside my bed.

So, you notice, no pictures of her sleeping in her bed. Because she didn't do it. This has been going on now for over a year and a half. Also, the paci issue? Another example of her stubbornness. She just up and decided one day that she was done sleeping with it. She never slept with it again. This is the child I'm dealing with.

About a month and a half ago, Charlotte got sick, and the sleeping issues just exploded. Suddenly, instead of just crawling into our room at some point during the night, she started trying to crawl into our bed. And, instead of letting us sleep, she would cry and scream when she woke up.

We couldn't take it any more, so we decided to bring out the big guns: Dora. We had an old twin daybed in the basement, and we promised her she could get a true big girl bed WITH Dora sheets. (As luck and fate would have it, when we went to get said Dora sheets at Target, they were on clearance and were the last set there. $25 for an entire new bedding set? Done.) I didn't really want to mess up her adorable pink and white dandelion room with bright Dora sheets, but decided my sleep and sanity were worth it. So, we jumped in.

Charlotte as pleased as punch with her new Dora Rocks bed.

So, the first night was a smashing success. She was thrilled to go to bed in her new Dora Rocks bed, and she slept the entire night in bed. We thought, "Wow, we're awesome."

Then, along came the second night. Not so awesome. She got out and tried to crawl in bed with us. Cory had to put her back and calm the crying before she finished the night in bed. The next morning she told me, "Mommy, I slept the whole night in my Dora bed." Um, not so fast little Pinocchio.

The third night, she stayed in bed, but screamed, "DADDY!" over and over and over until Cory finally went in. At which point, she jumped up and ended up giving him a busted lip. Not an awesome night.

The fourth night was more of the same crying but without the fat lip.

The fifth night, we finally saw an entire night in the bed. This time, when she woke up and said, "Mommy, I slept all night in my Dora Rocks bed," there was no nose-growing.

On Friday morning, after that fifth night, Molly was off school for the third day in a row, and I was desperate for something to do. I texted an SOS message to my friend Tara, and she suggested that we meet up at a new story hour that she'd heard about it.

We showed up for this story hour and the book they read was all about this little baby owl who did not want to go to sleep in his own nest. Um, hilarious timing, no? Then, it turns out they had a second book. And, the author, Marcia G. Riley, is from Lawrence. Her book, The Pillow Fairy, is all about a boy who has trouble sleeping all through the night in his bed. Seriously. It's like the universe is just throwing rocks at my head. The Fairy will leave little things like stickers under your pillow if you sleep all night in your own bed. The story is really cute and quite apropos for our situation.

Story hour with the Dhakals. They had stories, a craft and snack. Awesome story hour.

We bought the book because, well, how can you not after the timing of that? I tried to get Charlotte to pose with the author, but ... well, she's Charlotte, and she didn't want to.

But, Molly took a picture with her because she thought it was cool that she met an author!

Last night, the girls spent the night at Cory's parents' house. Apparently, Charlotte did not sleep through the night there. And, tonight, they are spending the night at my parents' house. Who knows what will happen there?

And, who knows what will happen when she gets home, and we're back in the regular routine? All I know is that I really, really, really loved getting a full, uninterrupted night's sleep.

So, maybe if the pillow fairy and Dora team up in the Lafferty household, we might just eke out a few more nights like this ...

ahhhh ... pure bliss.

O sleep, O gentle sleep

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.  ~Leo J. Burke

When you are a new parent, you spend almost all of your time and energy focused on your child's eating and sleeping habits. In fact, you become so obsessed with it, it becomes completely normal and common to have entire adult conversations about how long your child is sleeping at night or how many ounces of milk your child is consuming.

You have this conversation with your spouse/partner constantly, with other moms all the time, but when you start regaling random Target check-out ladies with the details of your precious child's latest nighttime sleep habits, you know you've officially lost it.

Check-out Lady: "Awww, your baby is so cute!"
You: "Thanks!"
Check-out Lady: "How old is she?"
You: "She's 5 weeks. But, she still is not sleeping very well at night. I'd always heard that bigger babies slept longer earlier, but that is just not that case for her. Although, she did sleep for five hours last night. But, that was the first time she's done that. But, it seems like she's really started getting the nursing thing down. She's getting faster, which means it's quicker between sleep sessions at night. It's really been in the last week or so that she's gone any more than three hours, so I've been pretty zombie-like for most of the time. It's just so great that we can actually get out to Target and talk to another adult! It's amazing what five continuous hours of sleep can do for a new mom, isn't it?"
Check-out Lady: "Um. Ok. Here's your receipt."

Not that that ever happened or anything. Yeah.

Anyway, so, one of the fallacies in this parenting thing is the phrase "sleeping through the night." When your child finally starts consistently sleeping through the night (which for my girls was around 3-4 months), you think you're home free. At least, I did. I figured that was it. The sleepless nights were done. I could get back to being a normal semi-well-rested adult.

I laugh at my own naivete.

See, it turns out, that even though your infant starts sleeping through the night, that doesn't mean your toddler will. Or that your preschooler will. Every stage begins the sleep training and sleepless nights anew.

Currently, we are in the Charlotte-2-year-old-parental-sleep-deprivation stage.

A couple months ago, Charlotte started climbing out of her crib. We would wake up at all times of the night with a crying child in our face begging to be let in bed. Or, we'd wake up and see lights on in the kitchen or living room or Molly's room - wherever she'd decided to go exploring at 2 in the morning. This was around the same time that Molly was creeping out of her toddler bed to sleep on the chaise in our bedroom. (Yes, Molly was still in a toddler bed. My husband is frugal, what can I say.)

All this moving around during the night, started to affect Charlotte during the day. She was so tired from her nocturnal meanderings that she started falling asleep when we went to pick Molly up from preschool at 11:00. And, as any mom knows, a child falling asleep in the car ruins the actual nap time. With a 20-minute "nap" under the belt, Charlotte thought she was raring to go, refused to take her actual nap and was a cranky, whiny mess by 4:30. Ugh.

Car naps, while adorable, wreak havoc with my day.

"A day without a nap is like a cupcake without frosting." ~Terri Guillemets