Before I Had Three Kids

Hello, and thank you for joining me on the third installment of "Before I Had Three Kids." 

Today, I'll tell you that before I had three kids I never realized one could be up every hour of the night with a different child. ALL.NIGHT.LONG. 

Even Eli agrees. This is what he looked like after "waking up" in the morning.

It started with the fateful decision to crash early. John and I were just falling asleep after cleaning up for the night and thought we'd turn in early. 

 It's the Murphy's Law of parenting: go to bed early, it's bound to go awry!

Deacon was up at 10:38, obviously not happy. He'd nurse, then pop off. Fuss, repeat.

I finally put Deacon back in his room when we received a visit from Turner. He is refusing to wear his "Under Jams" so is trying to learn to wake up to pee. Well, his bladder failed him. Twice. He had peed his bed and this make-shift bed on the floor, soaking through several pairs of pajamas. When we returned him to his bed, he was not happy. So, as he's protesting, Eli wakes up pissed off at the world. 

I brought Eli to our bed thinking if the big boys were separated, at least someone would sleep. 

Wrong again. Eli is not the best bed buddy. It's too novel for him now. 

Deacon wakes up to nurse again but goes back to his bed without a fight.

Turner was still protesting sleeping in his bed or on the floor (he was requesting the guest room...and can you blame him? He kept peeing where he was supposed to be sleeping!) Eli was thrashing around. 

Turner finally passed out somewhere upstairs, John came back to bed, Eli was NOT settling down. 

Deacon is back in my bed, nursing like a venus fly trap. Painful. Eli "accidentally" slaps Deacon in the face and, after the longest breath in, the baby is now screaming.

John brought Eli back to bed, there was a protest. 

Turner's awake now, too. 

Yipee. 

John leaves the grumpy old men upstairs and, eventually, we hear quiet. Literally 30 seconds later...

Deacon is screaming. What the WHAT? (In his defense, I think he's getting sick).

I brought him back to bed to nurse and returned him to the crib at 5:37. 

**yawn**

ALL.NIGHT.LONG. 

Really, people. All I thought of the next morning is how thankful I was to have John around. This same situation happened while he was gone in January and there was vomiting added to the mix. It sucked. This time, however, I had back up and that's a powerful thing.