Party on, Finn

Remember how Finn has been sleeping through the night for the last couple of months? Like 10 - 11 solid hours? Well, the last 3 nights in a row, he has apparently decided to change things up a bit. What is happening is that he is suddenly back to pooping at night (he stopped doing that a while back). He'll have this huge poop that literally wakes me up across the 8 feet or so between our bed and his bassinet. It's the sort of poop that oozes half way up his back and through his jammies. So I have to get up and not only change his diaper, but also give him a modified sponge bath, change his jammies and sleep sack and perhaps even the sheet in his bassinet. Then I have to sit in the rocking chair and nurse him back down again. Only by this time, he's ready to party. Just all happy grins and babbling and waving his little hands around. Eventually I put him back in his bassinet wide awake and just cross my fingers that he'll babble himself back to sleep, 'cause, kid, Mommy needs some shut-eye. This process has been taking 30 - 45 minutes. It completely stinks to be in a deep slumber and have to wake up and stay up for 30 - 45 minutes.

Last night was the worst night in recent memory (not that it's all Finn's doing). I was feeling rundown and on the verge of coming down with something all day yesterday so I went to bed at about 10, very much looking forward to a good night's sleep. Around midnight, our electricity went off. Or rather, it had apparently gone off and now came back on, which involved the house alarm system making this obnoxious beeping sound as it reset itself, and the overhead light in our bedroom coming on (why it goes on when the electricity has shut down when the light wasn't on to begin with is a mystery). So we got the alarm taken care of and the light turned off, and then just as I'm drifting back to sleep, I hear Finn across the room letting 'er rip. Crap. Yes, exactly. So I get up and change him and sit down to nurse him and do that whole rigamarole and then put him back in his bassinet and get back into bed. But wait, there's more! A few minutes later, just as I'm once again drifting off, I hear Finn letting loose another big poop. Didn't we just do this? So up I am again with him.

Finally, I put him down again, and get back into bed again. I don't even know what time it is now, but I know I've been up for quite a while and I'm starting to feel desperate for sleep. As I'm drifting off, the freaking electricity goes off again. Only this time, the twins start wailing in their room because their nightlight has gone off and it's pitch black in their room. So Michael and I both get up and try to calm them. Michael gets a flashlight and puts it on the dresser in their room as a makeshift nightlight. We get back into bed . . . and the electricity comes back on (repeat alarm and overhead light song and dance). I think Finn might have woken up again at this point, but I really can't remember. What I do remember is that as I was trying to get back to sleep AGAIN, Michael started snoring. I'll refrain from a graphic description of his snoring. Let's just say that it brings out some hostility in me. I nudged him and said, "You're snoring." "Oh, sorry," he said. And that was it. The snoring continued. Sometimes I actually kick him out of bed for the snoring and he goes downstairs and sleeps on the futon, but really, it's hard for me to tell him to leave. I don't know why, it just feels mean. (Apparently I'd rather stew about it and end up being bitchy the next day for lack of sleep.) So I finally got up and went out to the sofa. It's hard to sleep on the sofa because it's not my bed. So I laid there for a while trying to get to sleep, and a little while later I hear Annabelle crying. By this time I am no longer even trying to be nice. I stomp into her room (hoping that my stomping across the hardwood floors will wake Michael - who the hell is he to be sleeping when I am obviously not going to be allowed any sleep?) and snap at her "What's the matter?!" She has to go to go potty. So I take her into the bathroom, which is connected to our bedroom (and still Michael sleeps), and then put her back to bed. Michael is still snoring so I go back out to the sofa. I feel like crying, I'm so tired. And I really don't feel good. I lay down and wait for sleep to come. By now I'm telling myself, well, an hour or two will be better than no sleep at all, right? A little while later Finn is crying. Damn! So I go sit with him again. Michael is still snoring. I get Finn back down and go back out to the living room. A little while later I hear Lilah crying in her room. I wait. She settles down without my going in there, but still, it's jarred me out of possible sleep again.

Finally, I fall asleep and have a strange dream about giraffes on our front lawn. Then I hear the beeping of the alarm on my cell phone set because I'm not in my bedroom, telling me that it's 5:30 and time to get up.

None of this is exaggerated, I promise you. I figure I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night.

Michael gets up this morning and comes into the kitchen where I'm making the kids' lunches for school and says to me, "Did you sleep somewhere else last night?" I just glared at him.