Stressing Me Out

8:45 -- Bedtime was an hour and a half ago but the kids are still wide awake and wired. They are keeping each other up, throwing stuff, losing their pacifiers, looking out the window, and having weird conversations. For instance:

Nora: Uh oh, spettigos! Say 'uh oh, spettigos' Milo.

Milo: Okay. Uh oh, spettigos!

Or,

Milo: Noonah's looking out the window! (Repeat 50 times)

Nora: Talking like a zebra!

Milo: Say 'talking like a zebra' again, Noonah.

Nora: Talking like a zebra!

Milo: Say it again!

Nora: No, I already said it!

Or,

Milo: One, two, five, four, counting to four. (Singing Feist song) OoooooOOOOO, counting to four. OoooooOOOOO, let's count some more.

[Giant crash]

Milo: Oh, Noonah! Oh Noonah baby!

Or,

Nora: [coughing fit]

Nora: I coughed. Excuse me!

Meanwhile Jake just finished a movie on his laptop and had this commentary:

Jake: Oh for Christ's sakes you can't just play some groovy tunes over footage of crap nothing and call it a movie!

I have 10 grant proposals to review in the next couple of weeks and it is impossible for me to get this work done when the kids are going nuts instead of sleeping!

This stresses me out because they're going to be cranky and tired tomorrow, because I wonder if they'll still be up when we go to bed, thus keeping me up, and because I wonder if this is the start of something that will require us separating them. Which would mean losing our office, and I don't want to lose the office space yet.

-- As of 9:20 the kids were jumping up and down in their cribs like maniacs. I finally separated them and put Nora in a pack and play in our room. I can hear Milo over the monitor:

Milo: Noonah! Noonah! Noonah! Noonah! [Sounding upset]

Milo: Nora's not in the crib. [Sounding calmer]

Milo: [Singing] Noonah, Noonah, Noonah, Noonah...

It's finally starting to quiet down now. Sheesh. Oh wait, I was wrong. Milo is getting more and more upset. Calling out for Nora, me, and Daddy. Nora fell asleep quickly once I removed her from Milo's mania.

-- 10 p.m. Rocked Milo in the glider for 15 minutes. He calmed down and finally relaxed for the first time all night. Put him back in his crib and he is at least quiet now.

-- 10:30. Both kids finally asleep.

It's strange that it was Milo who was completely wired and unable to sleep, and keeping his sister up. Usually Milo is Mr. Sleep. I've never seen him try to climb out of his crib, but I've seen him try to climb into his crib several times. Historically all of the sleep drama has been with Nora, and things are so different now that Nora is on medicine for reflux. It has been a night-and-day difference. Even like tonight, when she was awake, she hasn't cried. Before, as soon as she woke Nora would cry, hard, and I think it must have been because she was in pain. Once we put her back on the reflux medicine, at I can't remember, 21 months or something, Nora started sleeping through the night for the first time ever. I am so, so glad that she isn't suffering any more. It's only now, many months later, that I don't go to bed in constant fear that tonight is going to be one of those nights where we're up for hours, Nora is inconsolable, and things end with me getting puked on. Any time either of them makes a peep or a cry in the middle of the night, though, I am instantly wide awake, heart pounding, adrenaline coursing through my veins, thrown right back into the bad old days of nighttime agony.

Weird stuff like this is why I have a sleeping problem.