They did it!

I am happy to report that Miriam and Elijah both slept through the night in the same room! Miriam had fallen asleep in the afternoon which always wreaks havoc with her bedtime, so we had gotten a Friday night party movie to watch. Elijah had shots this week and has been very whiney and clingy for the past few days. So Eli went to bed in his cradle in Miriam's room at 6:30 while we started The Dragon Hunters. Although Eli cried off and on throughout the evening, we put them both down awake at 8, listened to one or the other or both cry for the next hour or so, and then it was blissfully quiet. Everybody slept until 6, when Elijah started talking. Brent was already awake (a normal day's wake up time is 5), so he was in charge. Miriam got up at 7 and when I talked it up to her that they both slept in the same room, she said, "We were crying." So much for not remembering the trauma. Anyway, gold stars for all Moore children today!

The Great Experiment Take Two: Failure

The plan has always been to have Miriam and Elijah share a bedroom. We have a three bedroom home, with one bedroom belonging to Brent and I, one bedroom serving as an office, and one bedroom housing to the critters. I have been nervous to put Eli in with Miriam at night. Call me crazy, but we're just now getting to the point where neither child gets up at night and gosh it makes a huge difference. For most of his life, Elijah has slept in his cradle in our bedroom. A few weeks ago, I laid in bed (after tiptoeing in to not wake up the boy) and realized that sleeping in my bedroom were: me, Brent, Elijah, JoAnn the cat, and Ezekiel the cat. Sleeping in the other bedroom was: Miriam. Now, I love my girl and I aim to give her the best but this is just too much. So a few weeks ago we moved Elijah's cradle to the office. This worked great, but made my blogging-emailing-billpaying-anythingelseonthecomputer-time reduce to virtually nothing. So one night last week we talked it up to Miriam and put Eli in her crib with her in the big girl bed. It didn't last more than a half hour. Last night we tried again. Miriam went to bed in her big girl bed, Eli went to bed in the crib. They were both awake and both quiet. Fifteen minutes and no noise later, I peeked in to see two of the sweetest kids in the world sound asleep. Success! Around 9, Elijah wakes up screaming and screeching. It's a new thing for him to have the world in crisis when he wakes up in the middle of the night, but hopefully it's just a phase. Miriam started crying too. She's an empathetic little girl and was worried about "my bruh-yuh Ee-eye." Eli wouldn't quit screaming so I finally took him out of the room to rock him. He fell asleep and I reluctantly put him in the office. So much for computer time for Mama. It's a good thing though because Miriam woke up screaming at 3. After calming her down and getting her back to sleep by 3:30, she started screaming again at 4. Because I knew she was okay, I let her go. And she woke Elijah up. Who started screaming. She finally realized that she was in a big girl bed, and finally she got fed up and got out to wander the house. Most nights I'm pretty levelheaded about the importance of sleeping time and keeping a cool head, but I was ready to skin the busters alive. I stormed out of my bed, throwing pillows at Brent just in case he didn't realize that I was mad, and found Miriam standing in the front room. I picked her up, decided to be calm instead of mad and sat in the rocking chair. She told me that "Ee-eye's crying." Really. She scooted off my lap and nudged in beside me in the rocking chair so there was room for him. Sweet. But still annoying in the 4 o'clock hour. I got up to get Elijah, who was still screaming, and Miriam made her break for the fridge. She had just enough time to snag a bag of carrots before I got back with Eli screeching in my arms and started yelling at her. Brent finally realized that our normal strategy of letting them cry it out wasn't in force and showed up to save the poor children from their murderous mother. I don't remember what he said, but I answered to "TAKE ONE OF THEM! I DON:T CARE WHICH!" Miriam was in more danger of having bodily harm, so he chose her. He took her back to bed and tucked her in the crib. Smart move... she can't always get out of that one. He said he heard carrot crunching before he left the room but because she was calm he wasn't about to take them away. Once everything else quieted down and he had his binkie, Eli drifted off to sleep too. After I dumped him in the cradle in the office and crawled back in bed, I told Brent that maybe when we finish the basement we need to put in an office in the corner. We may never get ours back.