{sleep deprived}

Both girls are currently sleeping soundly. That means I should probably be sleeping myself, not blogging, so this will be brief...

The sleepless nights started about 2 weeks ago, when we woke up at 1:15am to Kenzie screaming. A loud crash of thunder woke her and then her screaming woke Lexi, so both girls ended up in our bed. The thunderstorms continued for over 3 hours and we were all wide awake the entire time. The next sleepless night was caused by Kenzie's antics while we were in Louisville.

Then last week Randall was out of town for work and Kenzie seemed to develop full blown insomnia. She had trouble going to sleep and even if she didn't fall asleep until after 11pm, she awoke between 1am and 3am and was wide awake.... for hours. She would call for me. "Mommy, I have to go potty." I would take her to the potty and then she would want to play. She wanted to go downstairs, she wanted to read books, she wanted to play legos, she wanted to go see Tobi, she wanted to call Daddy, she wanted to potty again .... anything to avoid sleep. If I tried to put her back in her bed she would cry and get out of bed and walk to the gate at her door and call for mommy in the most pathetic voice ever. I didn't want her to wake Lexi so I would go get her and let her lay in bed with me ...except she wouldn't lay down, she wanted to get up .... the cycle continued for hours until she finally crashed in my bed.... about 45 minutes before my alarm was to go off to start my work day. It was a long week. Then we had a few nights of great sleep and I thought the cycle was broken. Ahhh, sweet sleep.

But then last night we had another bad night. Kenzie started screaming when we left the room after their bedtime routine.  I went up and laid in bed with her for about 20 minutes, but when I got up to leave she shot up in bed and started crying, "don't leave Mommy!"  I laid down again and she was tossing and turning.  I finally said that it was time for bed and that mommy had to go.  She didn't scream but when I got downstairs and looked at the monitor I could see that Kenzie had gotten out of her bed.  She was quiet so I thought I would give her some time.  All was quiet for about 10 minutes and then I heard a crash.  When I went upstairs I found Kenzie, minus her sleep sack (which the girls still insist on wearing), minus her pajama bottoms, minus her pull up, sitting on her potty in her bedroom, surrounded by pillows from our bedroom.  She had opened the gate, retrieved the pillows, retrieved the potty from the bathroom (she must have dropped it on her way, hence the crash).  Such a silly girl.  She was wide awake and giggling.  Right at this time, Randall got home from the gym so he took a turn laying with Kenzie and eventually she did fall asleep.... until about 3am when she was up again .... it was a long night and my alarm went off far too soon.

While I certainly miss my sleep, I am more concerned about Kenzie.  I don't know what is causing this insomnia.  It could be the potty training.  Perhaps she is growing out of her nap.  I talked to her pediatrician today and she gave me some pointers ... nothing that we aren't doing already really.  Hopefully it is just a phase and she will get back into a good sleep cycle shortly.  If not, we will take her to see a sleep specialist.  Lexi gets a gold star for being the biggest trooper through all of this.  Except for that one night during the thunderstorm she has slept through (or at least remained quietly in her bed) all of Kenzie's middle of the night antics.  If anyone has any pointers please let me know.

OK, now I am off to bed for some much needed sleep.  Night, night!

Instagram download from last week ... my girls accompanying me on my training runs ... stops at the park & for ice cream along the way, dinner at Zip's, sleepless nights, K&L in daddy's bike jersey, hair cuts, hosting book club!