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Monday, July 03, 2017

(Not) Sleeping

Sticking to a daily routine makes it easier to manage your blood sugar levels. This means waking up, going to bed, eating, and exercising at approximately the same time every single day, every single meal.

For the most part, I've managed to do this since I began monitoring my blood sugar levels this pregnancy. Some days I've been forced to wake up earlier than "normal" in order to get out of the house on time for appointments and things—and on those days I've noticed that my blood sugar levels really are higher than usual (like 10 mg/dL higher).

Sticking to a daily routine with a routine-averse toddler is...tricky...especially when that child is sick enough to be running a fever (but not sick enough to not run laps around the house between bites of breakfast).

I stayed home from church with Zoë yesterday. It was a pretty big Sunday for us; Andrew was released as executive secretary and I was released as a nursery leader. Because Andrew was still the executive secretary in the morning, his morning was full of meetings. He didn't have time to come home between meetings and the start of church to pick up the kids and while I could have driven the kids to church myself, and then driven home, and then gone to pick up the kids, and then come home...that sounded like a miserable idea with a sick baby in tow. (It made me look forward to living right across the street from the church building instead of right across town as we are now).

A friend of mine said she'd be happy to drive them, though, which was so nice!


Poor Zoë was miserable after her siblings left. She cried and screamed and rolled around on the floor.

"Aicho! Gack! Mimi! Gack!" she cried, wishing aloud that her sisters would come back (she never says Benjamin's name anymore, partly because she knows she can't—she used to say Benji but now assimilation has taken over her vocabulary, so she says things like "gack" instead of "back" and Ben has morphed into "Mem," which she knows doesn't sound remotely like Benjamin so she just...never calls him anything, ever).

After a good 10–15 minutes of that, she finally calmed down and allowed herself to be distracted. We had some lunch and played with LEGO and then snuggled on the couch with Sesame Street for a good two hours (very spiritual, I know). I managed to squeeze in a pretty good nap, but I'm not really sure Zoë did (though she did lie down and rest, so that was good).

Last night was a real doozy though! She went to bed fine—in fact, she fell asleep within ten minutes of being put to bed. And then she got up at 11:00 and stayed up until 5-stinking-o-clock in the morning. It was brutal. We gave her medicine. I sang her songs, rubbed her back, stroked her face. I left her well alone. I let her rub my back (it's a comfort thing for her; I think it developed while I was weaning her and couldn't face her or lie on my back next to her because she'd go crazy trying to get milk, so I'd turn away from her and say, "You can cuddle my back." And now she demands to rub my back every time she climbs into bed with me, which I find a little hilarious). I helped her find her water bottle to get drinks of water. I took her potty. I threatened to dump her into her own bed and let her scream (which I maybe should have done but there are other people in the house that I didn't want to wake).

Around 4:30 I got up, turned on the light and got really grumpy with her.

"You be quiet and go to sleep!" I growled. "Stop kicking me, stop head-butting me, stop touching me. Stop talking, stop wiggling, stop everything. I'm sorry you don't feel well, but what you need is sleep so go to sleep and leave me alone!"

"Mommy—happy," she pouted, instructing me to stop being so grumpy.

"I will be happy after I get some sleep," I said. "And you will be, too."

And then she finally settled down for the night and we slept until 10:30, throwing me way off of my schedule for the day. I don't know what sleeping in will do to my blood sugar levels yet (though I already know that my fasting level was the highest it has ever been; though still within a normal range) but I guess we'll find out...

(And while my sick child is fighting sleep with every ounce of energy left in her depleted system, my mother-in-law texts me from Auntie Emily's house in Idaho to inform me that all three of Emily's children are taking their hours-long afternoon nap—yes, all of them, at the same time. I'm not sure I've ever managed to have two children nap at the same time (or nap...like...ever), let alone three! But I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can lead a child to bed, but you cannot make them sleep. Some children like sleeping (Miriam, for example) and will go down for two naps a day and still sleep at night because that's how they roll. Other children (like every single other one of mine) will fight sleeping at all costs no matter the time of the day or night or whatever "method" of getting kids to go to sleep you throw at them. I think we're due for another sleeper (hear that, Alexander?)).

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