Hoofprints: Sleep Disorder

Yes...I'm aware once again in my lack of blogging. But seeing as how only about two people look at this blog, I'm sure you will learn to forgive my lazy nature. My finger is still sore, but the splint is off and I'm back to my preferred typing standard. Occasionally I'll hit a key on the keyboard the wrong way and searing pain will overtake my poor finger, but I figure it probably won't cause my finger to fall off, so I'm gonna go ahead and use it.

So we have a bit of a sleep disorder...or maybe sleep disarray would be more accurate. I'm not entirely sure. But as anyone who has kept a close watch on my blog would know, I haven't exactly had two perfect sleeping kiddos on my hand. In this skill department they are...er...lacking should I say? It has been quite testing lately to be honest. In the last couple of weeks, they have poked, prodded and pulled at my last strings of patience. I am sad, and somewhat ashamed, to say that for the last three or four months, I've had to rock both of my children to sleep. Naps and bedtime alike. Please note that one of these children is, in fact, almost two and a half years old and should not need to be rocked to sleep. He should have the confidence it takes to comfortably fall in to dreamland on his very own. Part of me has been oblivious to the true insane nature of rocking said child to sleep. But then, when talking to my friend, Mandy...also a mother of a boy around the same age...I mentioned to her that rocking Alex to sleep has become near impossible because he won't sit still for love nor money. The look on her face was one of utter shock and disbelief. She apparently was unaware of this. This look she gave me made me realize how bad it must sound and my shame surface. Most kiddos seem to fall asleep on their own and I truly feel bad that I have failed to teach him this most important skill of confidence. So here I am at a fork in the road. Alex won't rock to sleep, but when lying on his bed, his brain immediately switches into overdrive and he becomes a total chaotic child. Singing, yelling, jumping on the bed, kicking, etc. It all ends in the same result. Waking of poor sleepy Abby. She does not take the waking of her beauty sleep well and it's back to square one with her bedtime routine. *sigh* My fork in the road goes two ways so it is either go down the right fork in the road and continue to battle rocking him to sleep (which can now take up to an hour or more) or the left fork and let him wake Abby up over and over again until he can finally wind himself down (which can take up to two hours). So um...I'm open to suggestions on this little dilemma. If you wanna leave a comment on this blog, I would be glad to take any and all suggestions into consideration. Until this storm clears, I suppose it is back to the sleep disorder boy.

Here are a couple of pictures. I've started to lag in my picture taking skills. Bad mama...