Too good to be true.......

A classic excerpt of life:

The last week Hope has been put to bed at her normal 8ish bedtime and yet won't fall asleep until around 10pm. She sings to herself, kicks the wall, calls out for Mommy, needs water, talks, and eventually falls silent. By that time of night I desperately need a break time from kids and it just irks me that she isn't going to sleep. I decided to try not giving her a nap yesterday to see if that helps her get to sleep earlier at night. Talk about a backfire in Mommy's face! In addition to the additional whining of transitioning to another sibling, she was just outright difficult. She didn't want to listen, and even would deliberately disobey me. She ran around having crying fits, and was exceptionally sensitive. I anticipated difficulty but was perhaps not wise in the timing of this strategy to skip a nap. (considering Bryce is also experiencing transition to Mommy not being at his side every moment AND Mommy is not running on a full nights rest) We made it through dinner, bath time and pjs early with Daddy's help and decided to take the kids out to look at Christmas lights. Well, around 7:30pm we noticed a quiet backseat and realized Hope had fallen asleep in the car. Score! We came home and put Bryce and Hope in their beds. Ethan had fallen asleep around 7pm and was snoozing soundly. What a great time for Mommy and Daddy! The house was quiet, and we relished the peace as we finished dishes, cleaned up, and even snuggled on the couch and had an uninterrupted conversation. It was wonderful. I so enjoyed the peace. We got in bed per usual, and Ethan had a good night taking 3 hours in between each feeding, but at 3:45am I was startled awake by crying. It wasn't Ethan. It was Hope. I layed in bed for 15 minutes before dragging myself out to check what was wrong. She said she couldn't sleep and that we hadn't sung songs before bed. I told her it was nighttime still, she had to go back to sleep, and I wasn't singing. I left and was so disappointed to hear that the crying continued. Now here is the irony. Jared took the 4am feeding shift with Ethan and at 4:15am I went back and told Hope she could sleep with me. Just as she got in our bed..........yes, that is right.......more crying! This time it is Bryce. I layed in bed hoping it would stop and he'd go back to sleep. Then there was coughing. Now I am thinking he is sick and I need to go check on him to make sure he doesn't have a fever. I get up and get him and take them downstairs. All three of our kids are up by 4:25am! No. NO. NO! And they aren't just up....they are wide awake.....completely unable to go back to sleep. Of course Ethan, our infant who you would expect to be up in the middle of the night, goes right back to sleep after his feeding and sweet Daddy offers to watch a movie with the kids so that I can get a few more hours sleep. It was all just too good to be true. I am glad we relished it because it looks like we won't be having many more uninterrupted quiet evenings together. We'll go back to giving our Hopie a nap!