Family Life

Micah is not sleeping well at night. He stays up till late, protests loudly and at length whenever he’s put in his bed, and generally keeps the rest of us up. He’s not getting enough sleep himself, and I know I’m not getting enough sleep. Of all parenting issues with small children, sleep problems can be the most difficult to deal with.

Last night Daniel was crying out regularly in his sleep from nightmares, so what with Micah sleeping in fits and starts (and wailing at depressingly short intervals), and Daniel screaming and moaning, it was a rough night. It’s hard to muster patience and tenderness and caring at 3am, for the fourth time that night. By then we parents have adopted a mostly hands-off approach, yelling from our bedroom across the hallway, “Would you be quiet!!?? It’s three o’clock in the morning!! Go back to sleep!!” Not a lot of compassion for poor sick Micah or poor tormented Daniel.

So we’re moving Micah’s crib back upstairs. He’s been banished to the farthest reaches of the house before, but brought back into the fold for good behaviour. It looks like it’s time for some more strategic redistribution of family members. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I reckon absence of noise will certainly make us more kindly disposed toward each other.

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