Somebody awhile back posted asking about our biggest frustrations with nighttime parenting, and I really wanted to bring it up. My biggest problem is, and alwys has been, getting my girls to sleep in the first place. It has always, always been a circus to get Abby to sleep. She is very spirited, and has had a gift for fighting sleep ever since she was tiny. She's had phases where we could only take a drive to get her to sleep, and there's been times where we've had to rock her, but it's taken over an hour, and she would be screaming most of the time.
: There were nights when she was younger where I would nurse her until she was completely asleep for over half an hour. and then as soon as I moved, she would wake up. I remember being so frustrated with naps because I would spend an hour trying to get her to sleep (she was so obviously tired!) and then she would only sleep for forty-five minutes!
There are times even now that it takes over an hour to get her to sleep, and it drives me crazy! What makes things really hard now is that I have two little ones and I'm alone at nights because dh works in the afternoons and evenings. Having the concentrated quiet time that dd #1 needs is impossible when dd #2 is awake and wanting to nurse, which happens every night right around 8:00, which is when dd #1 should be going to bed.
: We are trying to adjust dh's work schedule so that he gets off at 8:30 and can be home by nine to help me with bedtime. I think I would lose it if I had to do it alone every night. Dd #2 isn't easy at night either. She's a really good sleeper once she gets to sleep, but some nights it has taken hours to get her sleeping. She doesn't like to nurse to sleep, so we've been taking nice long walks around the neighborhood with dd in the sling. I got the funniest look the other night from someone passing me. (Granted, in my pj's, bare feet, and a baby in a sling, I probably looked pretty funny!) I'm hoping that when these girls get a little older, they will inherit their dad's gift of being able to fall asleep anywhere, at a moment's notice!
And this is a little bit
T, but I just have to say how much I admire all of you with two or more kids. Working with two little ones and trying to meet both their needs is one of the hardest things, physically, emotionally and spiritually that I have ever done. (Today has been a really rough day, and dh won't be home for another 2 hours!)
The how we met stories are really fun! Here's ours:
The summer before I was a senior in college, I was a counselor at a summer camp in Michigan. I got involved with a guy there that I had known from my singles ward, but it ended really painfully. I came home from camp to find, literally, all my girlfriends were engaged or married. After the ugly relationship ended, I swore off guys forever. I had been involved with several relationships that had ended, and I was tired of searching and wanting the perfect relationship. I really wanted to go to grad school, and I decided to spend my senior year completely focused on my violin and getting into graduate school. I had moved right before I left for the summer, so when I got back, I started attending a singles ward that I had never been to before. I was really hesitant about it- I was so determined that I didn't want to date or be distracted from my goals, but I also knew that if I didn't start doing stuff with my singles ward, I would never be able to talk to anyone that wasn't engaged or married! By November, I was really involved in the graduate school stuff- I had packets of stuff from schools all over the country, I had picked my first five choices of schools, I was planning an audition trip, and I had even given out letters of recommendations to my professors to fill out.
One Sunday, one of my roommates convinced me to go with her to ward prayer- basically a devotional followed by a social time. I was sitting around feeling awkward because my roommate had ditched me to be with her fiancee, and I started talking to one of the guys sitting next to me. It was typical small talk- where are you from, what's your major, etc. When I told him I was majoring in violin performance, his eyes got all big and he said "Will you marry me?" Turns out he had been to the symphony the night before for the first time, and he was completely mezmerized by the violins. I kind of rolled my eyes inwardly and went on with the conversation.
A few weeks later, I was feeling all by myself in a combined meeting with the elder/RS and saw Tom. I remembered his name, and went and asked if I could sit by him. (During this meeting he said that he couldn't take his eyes off me, and has this "feeling" that he had always thought he would identify with the girl he would marry.) After the meeting, he asked me if I wanted to go dancing with him sometime. I was really hesitant, and kept trying to get out of it- first because I am a terrible dancer, and second, because I hadn't been on a date since I got home from Michigan and didn't really want to start. We talked for a minute, and he asked if I would go if we went to a comedy club instead. Finally, I thought that one date couldn't really hurt, and that it might actually be fun.
We went out that Saturday night- we doubled with his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend. After we dropped them off, we ended up in my driveway talking for hours and hours. He was being extremely forward- he told me on the way home that he thought I was the kind of girl that he could spend the rest of his life with. I kept telling him that he was crazy, and he kept playing all these romantic country songs and singing to me. We ended up kissing that night (He kissed me first- an argument we still have to this day!
) and I think I went to bed about three in the morning. The next day we went to church and both pretended that nothing had really happened so that we wouldn't start the rumor mill going. That night I fed him dinner (even though he had already ate and was being too polite to tell me!) and we went to temple square and walked around holding hands. We went out Monday night and went driving- we had a big discussion about what was going on, and how vulnerable we both felt, and I think by the time he dropped me off that night I knew we were going to get married. He proposed to me on the next Saturday night, after dating for a week. Boy, did we create a stir in our singles ward the next day! I felt right about it, but really got a spiritual confirmation the next week, when a priesthood blessing told me directly that we needed to get married and couldn't progress any further without each other.
It's pretty amazing how the Lord works. I think He knew that if Tom would have been any slower in purusing me or stating his feelings for me that I would have bagged the whole idea of a realtionship in favor of grad school- I had been in way too many relationships that went nowhere because the guy was too afraid of what was going to happen. We ended up taking a trip back to Illinois to meet his parents the week that I had planned to take my audition trip, and we were married four months later, in March, the week after my senior violin recital.
Thanks for letting me relive all these memories! DH is going to get a bg hug and kiss when he gets home! Who's next?