Glutton for Punishment

You know how you do those things as a parent that you know ahead of time is just a bad idea? Something that you know is just a crazy idea and that you put off doing forever? One of those things that you just dread but you do it anyway because you know it would mean the world to your kids? That was me last night. I finally let the kids have:

A sleepover in the basement. Not with any other kids, just themselves...trust me, those 3 together are enough!

They were SO excited once I told them the news! I had been hoping to have them do this on a night that I wouldn't be home alone with them all night so that Jim could actually help with all the shenanigans. But then I realized that the kids shouldn't have to wait for eternity to have their sleepover and that I just needed to bite the bullet. I figured that since I'm up every couple of hours with Emily every night and often with at least one of the other kids for some reason or another, what's this big deal really? Yes, that's right...if you caught that I said that I'm still up with Emily every couple of hours.


Side note: Emily loves her mommy and she loves breastfeeding. I happen to love Emily and love breastfeeding too so it's a good match. I think by the time you get to your 4th kid all the parenting books go out the window and you just have to go with whatever works. With a house full of sleeping people including myself ,I just don't see the point in waking everyone up every night for a few weeks to let Emily "cry it out"to force her to sleep through the night which I realize she should be fully capable of. with every other kid I followed all the rules and forced them to sleep through the night(mostly) around 6 months, but you know, by number 4 all those "rules" just have to give way to practicality. I battle all the other kids with who knows what all day the last thing I feel like doing during the night is battling more. I have no worries that I'm ruining her or spoiling her and this way I get to meet my daily quota of chubby cheek kisses. Ten peaceful minutes every couple of hours and we both usually fall asleep during the feeding anyway and everyone is happy.


Anyway, back to the sleepover. It was complete with a movie and popcorn although they didn't have those yummy malteds that my parents used to make for me when I had a sleepover (next time I'll be more prepared).

All in all it went really well. I was very proud of myself for having as much patience as I did and I knew the kids would need some time for goofing off and that they wouldn't get to sleep at their usual times and that would be OK. That's a pretty big step for this rule following gal! As the noise got louder, I just turned up my TV show louder. I knew ahead of time that I would need to have something to dornw out the noise and I discovered "The Facts of Life" reruns on my Netflix on demand to watch so I was one happy eighties girl! So, I watched and scrap booked while the kids partied. The noise was actually really great to hear since it was all giggling anyway...there's something about the sounds of my kids' laughter that makes things all worth it!


They were all asleep by 9:45...pretty good I thought. When I went down to check on them before I went to sleep was amazing to see them all lined up, sleeping together. I again had that familiar lump form in my throat as I looked at them all together. It was one of my Kodak moments. I have these times where I actually take a long, lingering look and tell myself that I will remember this moment for the rest of my life. As I looked at all the entangled arms and legs I thought "What a responsibility and what a gift", all at the same time. That;s just the best feeling to me.