Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The grind

We were in McDonald's the day after Thanksgiving to let Jayden burn off some energy in one of those plastic playgrounds that looks like it was built for a giant hamster.
A guy was over there watching his children, and I ignored him, as I usually do in public, since I'm such a social butterfly.
When we traded off, and I started wolfing down some pancakes and sausage, Kate came back in and said, "That guy has twins."
My ears perked. Sweet. Someone to comiserate with us. And his twins were boys! Heh! He must have had it worse than us.
"Yeah, it was pretty hard," he said. "That first year. Wow."
I nodded my head, soaking in the sympathy. Yep. That first year. Wow.
"Of course, they slept through the night at three months," he said.
"Oh, really," I said through gritted teeth, fighting the urge to hit him with a tray.
Our girls are six months old now, and they are not sleeping through the night. In fact, their sleeping habits are much worse now than they were at three months. I actually remember telling my running partners at that time that they were basically making it through the night.
Last night? Allie woke up at midnight for a feeding, using her newfound opera-star lungs for emphasis. Andie woke up at 1:30 a.m. for a feeding (I took that one). Allie woke up at 3 a.m. and screwed around a bit. Andie and Allie both woke up at 4:45 a.m., hungry again. Then at 5:15 a.m., Andie decided it was time to get up and began squealing, and when that didn't work, decided to fuss. Kate probably jolted out of bed seven times to put the pacifer back in her mouth, but we were both awake after 4:45 a.m. Kate left for work at 6:45 a.m. and let me sleep until 8:20 a.m.
I am not only sick of the grind of the twins right now, I'm sick of not having the energy to do the grind because we can't ever rejuvenate at night.

To top things off, Jayden is 2-and-a-half and in full toddler mode. He's sometimes just impossible to deal with. He wants his mommy all the time, which honestly makes me wonder sometimes why I bother. I realize that's a pretty immature attitude but at times like these I can't help it.

Which reminds me.
Vegas.
10 days (right?).
Vegas tempts people with all sorts of vices. Pai Gow, poker, slots, rich food, alcohol, casual sex, strippers, skin, probably drugs if that's your thing. I'll partake in my fair share of poker and good times with virtual friends.
But Vegas may just tempt me with sleep most of all. I'll do my best to resist, but the siren song may be too much to resist.

P.S. Come back for cute pictures tommorow, just so you don't think I'm hating them too much. :)

5 comments:

SirFWALGMan said...

Haha! I can relate somewhat as my boy had a very fussy first 9 months of no sleeping. He was up every 1-2 hours all night. It was sick.

Dave said...

Shit dude. At least you get to go to Vegas. My kids are grown and I've not been able to get out there since 1987. I have since forgotten all of the sleepless nights as my youngest is now 14 and my oldest is 21. Kids are the reason we parents get older faster. Just part of natures plan I suppose.

Jordan said...

I'm glad someone will actually be sleeping in our room.

Stacie said...

OK. I suck and haven't been a good blog reading person lately but I have really good excuses all of which have to do with not enough sleep and too much to do.

And that guy in McDonalds was lying. His kids didn't sleep through the night at 3 months. Ask his wife. I bet she has a different story. HE may have slept through the night but both twins? That's hard to believe.

You're just a better partner and are being more help with the night-time parenting hell.

Love_elf said...

Poor Peaker! I'm sorry you and your wifey are having a hard time with the little ones. Vegas will provide you both with a nice and much needed break.

See you there! Where are you staying?