Schedules… or lack thereof…

Recently, my husband’s doctor asked him how much sleep he is getting.  He hasn’t been feeling that great.  He also hasn’t been sleeping that great.  Part of it is related to our little munchkins.  We’ve always been amazed at the lack of sleep that our son seems to need.  He is the king of re-charging, as we call it… the ability to be calm for mere moments and be ready to go full-speed again.  It’s a little overwhelming.  And his little sister certainly pulls her own weight in the crazy energy levels department.  It was recommended to my husband that we give our son Benadryl and all get some rest.

This isn’t the first time that it has been suggested… in fact, I believe that part of why children’s Benadryl isn’t as readily available (if at all… correct me here if I’m wrong) is because it has been thoroughly abused.  At one point, I was instructed by a physician to give our son Benadryl, during the day to test first, so that he could get the “required” amount of sleep.  You know what happened?  Nothing.  Benadryl knocks me out… but not our kid.

Anyway… my husband did some research.  He’s really good at that.  He found that it has been proven that kids thrive on schedules (no kidding.)  So… he decided that he was going to step it up in the daddy department and make it happen.  Thank goodness.  Being the bad guy/gal gets old.  So… he made some rules.  5 pm, dinner starts cooking, eat by 6, in bed by 9:30.  This sort of got bumped up to in bed by 9 and we realized that our son can’t really sleep at night if he naps… So… no more naps.  As a result, the monkey has been in bed twice in the last bunch of days well before 9.

It’s funny… our son seems more well rested. Our daughter is still waking every 30 minutes to an hour to nurse or pretend she has a diaper or just talk.  And Hubby and I… we’re still exhausted.  Such is life with two kids.

I am sitting in “my” bed (The one where the little girl and a dog and I sleep, beside the one where my son supposedly sleeps,) and I’m typing this and catching up wth friends while my son lays on the floor, trying desperately to not kick the wall too loudly while playing Angry Birds on his tablet.  At least the princess is getting some rest.

This schedule stuff is tough.