Why do I do these things to myself Part 5 – the END
January4
So while the older kids snored, the younger girls were VERY aggitated. There was much kicking and flailing about, whining, crying, tossing, turning and repositioning on the bed. First they were positioned in between RGG and I, but their restlessness made them fuss louder as they were kicking and flailing and flipping over on each other.
Then we tried a position with RGG, RGG’s daughter, Me, Girlchild… so that the girls were shielded from each other by me. The problem soon became clear that RGG’s daughter didn’t want to be next to me, and she didn’t want to be next to GirlChild and she didn’t want to be on the other bed. RGG and I didn’t want to disturb the older children, to move into more family configuration. And so we were left desperately attempting to find a way to get the little girls to sleep, and HOPEFULLY to get a little sleep ourselves as well.
Oh… did I mention that I had also agreed to go to work the next day? Yes I did!! So… amidst concern about how tired the little girls were, I was concerned about getting at least 2 hours of sleep in order to be able to go to work the next day and not be utterly useless.
By 3am I was starting to get really worried that I wouldn’t get any sleep. I had been kicked so much that I was getting bruised on both sides from the little girls’ thrashing about. I had tried to sleep on the end of the bed and on the floor and on the chair and on the bed with the older kids. But no matter where I tried to lay I was unable to stop worrying that I couldn’t get enough sleep. Unfortunately, the worry started me having a bit of a panic attack, which set off an asthma attack… which was COMPLETELY embarrassing for me..
One part of the night is that the night we did this was Solstice Night… in most general Pagan terms, it is the longest night of the year, the rebirth of the sun. A common tradition for Pagan families is to stay up through the longest night of the year and celebrate the rebirth of the sun the next morning. I had previously joked with RGG that that was part of a tradition (he knows that I am Pagan, he doesn’t seem to know what that is, and so therefore he doesn’t seem to care all that much that I am Pagan, which right now works good for me)… but I had no real intention of letting my kids stay up all night when I had to work the next day either…
Now, in retrospect, there were definitely things I could have done differently that night:
- I could have ordered the pizza earlier, and we might have been able to eat BEFORE it was past their bedtimes… but that would have been hit and miss
- I could have enforced the “only one glass” of pop rule… the problem was that G was drinking glass after glass and the kids didn’t see why they couldn’t as well. And, with one kid pouring for another, it got out of hand quickly. The sugary caffeinated beverages needed to be controlled.
- the bedtime should have been a bit more settled
- we should have laid down the law that the family units slept together, rather than splitting up. That way we could have kept control of our own kids better (laugh)
Needless to say, between sugar, caffeine, excitement, and the novelty of the situation, the 2 younger girls decided that they would rather not sleep the whole night, and subsequently that their mother or father would not be allowed to sleep either. And, at around 4am I gave up. I just gave up being worried about work, about being upset that I wasn’t sleeping, that I was going to have a very crabby child on my hands, that I was likely NOT going to make it in to work that day (I rarely take sick days, so I didn’t worry that it would be an issue either, because it happens)… and RGG and I took the middle of the bed, cuddled up together, and put the girls on either side of us…
And magically, about 6:30am, the girls settled down and fell asleep. And RGG and I extricated ourselves from them, I took the opportunity to call my manager and tell him that I was NOT going to come in that day to work and that I’d call him later, and took up at the foot of the bed to stretch out and groan about the events of the night and how much we think that we should have done things differently. Then, we decided to pass out together at the foot of the bed where our 4 and 5 year old (respectively his and mine) daughters had fallen asleep.
And we managed to sleep there from about 7am until the older kids (8 (mine) and 6 (his)) woke up at about 9:30am.
We entreated them to play quietly and allow their little sisters to sleep a bit longer, took over the bed THEY had been sleeping in, and continued to pass out for another hour before the littlest girl (RGG’s 4 year old daughter) woke up to play with the older kids. And then they managed to wake GirlChild… and there was grumpy crying and grumbly RGG (laugh) and me giggling…
It was at THAT time that I decided that it would be absolutely BRILLIANT if we ALL got everything together and I took everyone out for breakfast (laugh). By this time RGG was getting quite “grumpy” about the whole event and tried to tell me that his kids would not behave, and I shushed him and forced him to have a shower instead while the kids got dressed and I cleaned up the room. We managed to get the mess under control (somewhat) and pressed the childrens to assist in running through the room looking for assorted mess and untidiness, getting themselves dressed, and being relatively quiet. We DID have to scramble a bit, as i realized, a bit belatedly (after I sent him off to shower) that the kids had managed to use EVERY towel for swimming the night before… but we quickly called housekeeping and ordered more towels, and slipped into the bathroom to make sure RGG had a clean towel to dry off with… and everything was set.
We got both cars started (yay!) and all the crap packed back up into the vehicles.
Then it was off to Denny’s with the kids.
Actually, all said, the kids were GREAT, ALL of them, were well behaved. Other than some tiredness and one spilled glass of chocolate milk, everyone was happy and ate their breakfasts and had a good time together. It is good to know that they can get along… because I have a feeling that we are going to be spending some time together (yes, we have become very close and I think that we’re gonna try and make this work) and it is great to know that the kids can get along and deal with the fact that we are starting on down this path…
When I first started writing this entry (or series of entries) I started off worrying that this was a breaking point in what was a very close blossoming relationship, and that he would run screaming from the exhaustion of being in a closed space with 3 little girls and 1 little boy and a girlfriend… but I now know that all this experience was for us was the first funny story and great memories. I know that we will have MANY more memories, many more great times… and I don’t worry so much at the end of this series as I did at the beginning of it…
And ONWARD…
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THE GIGGLE Mail around Group
I’m glad you had a good time after all, but I feel a little let down that you didn’t have to scrape a sugar-spastic child off the ceiling. It seemed where you were taking the story and now I feel thwarted.
Oh, I know, you could see if your kids can finish two liters of espresso!!
S is very cruel.