Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Why Doesn't This Kid Sleep?! A Timeline of a Father With a Singing Toddler
To fully understand the events of which I am about to report, it is necessary to know that Monday was a. a holiday in Japan and thus one where I didn't have school and neither did my sons. And b. a park day, given that the random twitching and threats of defenestration towards our sons from Beloved had reached dangerous levels, suggesting that a day off for her was desperately needed. The result was of course two dead kids. Hikaru barely made it out of the park gate before conking out and Makoto went 15 minutes before Lord Morpheus claimed him as well. The both of them slept for no more than 45 minutes (That's the great thing about the park, the drive home is long enough to get in a nice nap), and after waking, they spent a good chunk of the evening chasing each other around like loons.
Beloved and I felt that, yes, they had a busy, eventful day full of play and an evening full of the same. Their napping time was limited, much shorter than the hour and a half that Hikaru normally takes, and thus both children should go to sleep pretty quickly this night.
Yeah, right...
8:40 pm: The chime rings summoning me from my office to fish two wet kids out of the tub. Both kids come racing out the door trailing water to jump on their PJ-clad father, soaking him and demanding hugs, repeatedly. After a quick drying off the nightly books were read (Trick or Treat for Makoto and 10 Fat Turkeys for Hikaru, who would launch into a round of giggling every time he heard "Gobble Gobble Wibble Wobble"), the water gotten, the blanket taken, and both boys deposited into their respective futons. Ni-night, sleep well, love you and a kiss good night...
9:00 pm: Beloved comes in from the end of her bath, kisses the boys good night and the lights are off except for my reading light. While Beloved rolls over, I go back to Middle Earth, the pass of Cirith Ungol, and the choice of Master Samwise. I expect to hear the nightly noises of snoring from both sons shortly.
9:10 pm: Hikaru launches the night by jumping over Beloved onto his brother while yelling "Gobble gobble!" Both boys break out into a bad case of the giggles while I curse those ten fat turkeys and mutter threats of revenge involving stuffing. Beloved grabs Hikaru, shoves him back into the futon, I hook Makoto into his, and try again to get them to sleep.
9:15 pm: Makoto rolls over and starts to 'read' his book. "Trick or treat? Trick or treat! Give me something good to eat!" which prompts more "Gobble! Gobble!" from Hikaru, who wanders around to Makoto, trailing his blanket. Beloved grabs Hikaru, mummy wraps him in the blanket and puts him back on the futon. Makoto finds Daddy growling at him, gives up and starts to bury himself into his blanket, off to the Land of Nod. The battle is over.
9:20 pm: The battle is NOT over as a series of thumps announces Hikaru has worked his way free of his blanket and wanders over to Daddy's futon to try and read over his shoulder about how Pippin, Gandalf, and Shadowfax ride to Minas Tirith. Daddy yells at him to GO TO BED! Hikaru goes back to his futon, managing to hit the wall on his way.
9:30 pm: Hikaru starts singing "Engine Roll Call" from Thomas the Tank Engine (Not that he's actually singing mark you, it's more him going "Na na na na" with engine names). Beloved rolls onto her side, determined to ignore the toddler in the hopes that he will go to sleep out of boredom if nothing else.
9:45 pm: The impact of a small body traveling at high speed jolts me awake from where I was nodding over Pipping swearing his service to the Lord Steward Denethor. Hikaru grins at me from where he has wedged himself in between the wall and my body and giggles as I tell him to go to sleep.
10:00 pm. Thinking that, at last, he is asleep, I raise my head up from my book just to see Hikaru grinning at me. "Gobble gobble!" he says.
10:05 pm: Hikaru has taken to walking back and forth at the feet of the futons while his brother snores and his mother is still busy ignoring him. Daddy tries to do the same, going back to Lord of the Rings. When that doesn't work, he tells him to go to sleep. More giggles.
10:10 pm: Being ignored, Hikaru switches to going back to his futon and kicking the walls. The thumps sound rather like taiko drums. Obviously this kid has talents we had not previously discovered, all well and good except at 10 o'clock at night!
10:15 pm: Back to singing. I look at Makoto, who is sound asleep and snoring, and at Beloved who is also asleep, or at least pretending to be so as to not have to acknowledge the toddler as being her son. I wish I could join her.
10:20: Now Hikaru has gone from singing to singing and drumming his feet on the bedroom wall. I start wondering what possessed me to bring him back from the park. I mean, I could have left him there, I'm sure some kind family would have adopted him (Being so cute after all), or... failing that, a tribe of monkeys! Yes, he'd fit in well with a monkey tribe.
10:25 pm: Five minutes of silence, dare I hope? "Gobble!"
I dared, I hoped, it was dashed.
10:30 pm: Daddy is about ready to just give up and shut off the light in the hopes that the still singing toddler will take the bloody hint. But hark! What was that? A yawn?! Yes! Yes it was! With one final "Gobble!" Hikaru grabs his blanket, turns over with a thump into the wall, and starts to finally settle down.
10:32 pm: The snores, the very loud snores, signal that Hikaru has finally gone to sleep. Beloved rouses herself up long enough to make sure he's on his futon and is covered with his blanket. "Well," I say to her, "At least we know that a 45 minute nap will fully recharge him."
In his sleep, Hikaru is still saying "Gobble, gobble" and giggling. I'm gonna shoot those damn turkeys.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Lazy Saturday Morning
For once we didn't have anything going on last Saturday morning. There was no alarm, no need to get up early and get to work or drill, no event, no trips that required any kind of driving, just a chance to wake up slowly. That's what I got to do, wake up on my own time with the sunlight slowly filtering in past the curtains to fall on my still slumbering Beloved and two wide-awake and grinning kids.
Yes, the boys were up and just waiting for either Mommy or Daddy to open their eyes so the play can begin. Sadly, I was the one who did.
Still, lying in my futon with both boys engaged in an all out war that involved them rolling around in their blankets and giggling just to break off and attack the nearest parent (To be repelled with tickling, sending them into shrieks of laughter), it was... nice.
No, it was more than that, it was a feeling that I have come to enjoy as a father... contentment.
And it's not a bad thing at all.
Sure, the morning ended in tears when a 'ghost' took a head dive in his blanket and bonked his head on his brother, but for 15 minutes, the world was far away and all that mattered was that late summer morning in a bedroom and my boys enjoying a family moment with their parents that needed nothing else added.
No, not a bad thing, or way to wake up, at all.
Yes, the boys were up and just waiting for either Mommy or Daddy to open their eyes so the play can begin. Sadly, I was the one who did.
Still, lying in my futon with both boys engaged in an all out war that involved them rolling around in their blankets and giggling just to break off and attack the nearest parent (To be repelled with tickling, sending them into shrieks of laughter), it was... nice.
No, it was more than that, it was a feeling that I have come to enjoy as a father... contentment.
And it's not a bad thing at all.
Sure, the morning ended in tears when a 'ghost' took a head dive in his blanket and bonked his head on his brother, but for 15 minutes, the world was far away and all that mattered was that late summer morning in a bedroom and my boys enjoying a family moment with their parents that needed nothing else added.
No, not a bad thing, or way to wake up, at all.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Sleep Wars Episode II: Attack of the Toddler
Previously on Sleep Wars I talked about the joys of co-sleeping in Japan and how a thunderstorm can make life entertaining. At the end, I claimed I had won the battle... Fool, thy name is Daddy for the toddler has come on the attack.
Hikaru has decided that he no longer likes his futon, or Beloved's futon. No, instead for the last few nights he has taken to falling asleep on my futon, usually after the aforementioned round of attempting to steal my reading light, or sitting on my back.
It's hot, I sleep shirtless in the Japanese summer heat and usually read on my stomach. Hikaru of course thinks "Horsey!"
Now, sleeping with your son isn't that bad, really. For all the brat compacted into his small frame, Hikaru is cute and he is one of my sons. But... well, both my sons take after their mother.
Beloved, as I have mentioned, is a wonderful woman... who masses about half of what I do and is a good half foot shorter. And yet, somehow, whenever we share bed space (Or even when we don't), she somehow manages to migrate during the night and forces her larger husband off his futon, or crowds him into a small little sliver of the bed. This is not a woman who sleeps quietly.
BOTH Makoto and Hikaru do the same. Makoto will spend a good chunk of the night moving from his futon to mine, and then pushing me up against the wall. Adding Hikaru to the mixture just means there is NO escape, it now comes in two different directions.
The new sleeping tactic in the Sleep Wars is to attempt to stay awake long enough for Hikaru to get into a deep enough sleep that it becomes possible to move him back to Beloved's futon and then hope he STAYS there, or at least his nightly migrations perter out somewhere around the door and not across the room where I am. This does have some downsides, namely that it can take a long time for Hikaru to go to sleep and in the meantime, I get to be a horse to a happy, bouncing toddler while trying to read.
But it does have it's upside as well, like looking over to find Makoto sound asleep with his head off his futon, Hikaru asleep with his head on Makoto's legs, and Beloved sound asleep with her arms above her head and one knee sticking straight up and all three sawing enough "wood" that if it had been actual timber, we would have our winter fuel supply met for the next two years.
I would have taken a picture, except that I want to keep being able to sleep with my family and not outside.
Hikaru has decided that he no longer likes his futon, or Beloved's futon. No, instead for the last few nights he has taken to falling asleep on my futon, usually after the aforementioned round of attempting to steal my reading light, or sitting on my back.
It's hot, I sleep shirtless in the Japanese summer heat and usually read on my stomach. Hikaru of course thinks "Horsey!"
Now, sleeping with your son isn't that bad, really. For all the brat compacted into his small frame, Hikaru is cute and he is one of my sons. But... well, both my sons take after their mother.
 |
| Yeah, kinda like this... |
BOTH Makoto and Hikaru do the same. Makoto will spend a good chunk of the night moving from his futon to mine, and then pushing me up against the wall. Adding Hikaru to the mixture just means there is NO escape, it now comes in two different directions.
The new sleeping tactic in the Sleep Wars is to attempt to stay awake long enough for Hikaru to get into a deep enough sleep that it becomes possible to move him back to Beloved's futon and then hope he STAYS there, or at least his nightly migrations perter out somewhere around the door and not across the room where I am. This does have some downsides, namely that it can take a long time for Hikaru to go to sleep and in the meantime, I get to be a horse to a happy, bouncing toddler while trying to read.
But it does have it's upside as well, like looking over to find Makoto sound asleep with his head off his futon, Hikaru asleep with his head on Makoto's legs, and Beloved sound asleep with her arms above her head and one knee sticking straight up and all three sawing enough "wood" that if it had been actual timber, we would have our winter fuel supply met for the next two years.
I would have taken a picture, except that I want to keep being able to sleep with my family and not outside.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Sleep Wars
Yeah, I know, a dad complaining about kids and sleep. How cliche can ya get?
Ah my friend, have you heard about child sleeping arrangements in Japan? See, whereas there's a new fangled co-sleeping movement in the US (Which with all things parenting has started up its own war), Japan has traditionally co-slept. Cribs are actually a bit of a newer idea for the Japanese. It makes sense of course, in small Japanese houses where rooms tend to be multi-functional, having a dedicated room JUST for the baby is silly, add in the room a crib takes and...
So at the old, two room house, we started co-sleeping. That is, I'd be on my futon in one room, and Beloved and Makoto would be on her futon in the other. When Hikaru arrived, we moved Makoto to my futon, and eventually to his own next to mine. I have to admit, there are some nice advantages to the arrangement. When the boys viewed Mommy as a lunch, nursing at night was a simple affair of Beloved rolling over a bit, opening the front of her pajamas, popping out a boob and dozing as one of the boys got his midnight snack. Given we were (and still are) on Japanese style futons on the floor, we didn't have any worries about falling, climbing the bars, or getting heads stuck anywhere. And there is (usually) an advantage in cranky kids. When Makoto has a nightmare, or Hikaru suddenly decides he's been abandoned and we hear the midnight wail, instead of having to get up and stumble down the hall towards the source of the cries; a halfway awake "Hey, kiddo, it's ok, Daddy's here" and a pat usually settles them back down to the arms of Lord Morpheus.
There's some disadvantages of course. Two kids in the bed makes it a bit hard to have more, shall we say, adult conversations and activities with the Beloved and we're reduced to waiting with baited breath for them to nod off before sneaking out, assuming we don't fall asleep first.
Having to pre-plan does take some of the fun out of it.
And of course should there be any kind of nighttime release from either end of a kid, well it can get messy and not just on said kid's bed. The first night Makoto had stomach flu ended up with me having a lack of pajamas and bedding as well as him. And a lovely smell that took forever to get rid of. There's also the issue of length. Traditionally, you'd find kids co-sleeping with their parents in Japan well into, if not through, elementary school. Beloved tells me that it wasn't until she was in 2nd or 3rd grade that she decided to move out of her parents' bedroom into her own room at night. Now that we have our own house, we're all sleeping in the same room, which is a bit daunting to think of doing this for the next 7 to 10 years or so.
But all-in-all, I don't have a problem with the co-sleeping and most of the time I'm an advocate for it. Except recently.
We have a problem, his name is Hikaru. Makoto, the eldest, was a kid who bowed to pressure and just conformed to his parents' sleep schedule. If we went to bed at 9:30, that's when he went to bed. We might want a book before bed, but for the most part he was willing to settle down and start getting those Zzzz's (Makoto's sleeping issues are not liking mid-day naps, an inability to get up that doesn't involve a tow cable, and a cranky disposition 3-out-of-5-times when he does wake up). Hikaru however is a baby on his own timetable, damn what his parents' want. When he wants to sleep, he sleeps, even if it's on the floor in the middle of the toys he was just playing with.
Now, if allowed to sleep himself out, he awakes (early) with a sunny disposition and a willingness to tackle whatever is going on for the day (Usually Daddy's yogurt). Awaken him early and, well, it's like disturbing Godzilla's slumber (And given we're in Japan, ends up about the same way). It's the getting him to sleep in the first place. If he doesn't want to sleep, he won't. And we're on futons, on the floor. There is NO way of caging the beast. Even that wouldn't be a problem except that Daddy enjoys reading before sleeping. In fact, Daddy can't sleep if he doesn't get to chew through at least a few pages of his book before lights out.
IF I am lucky, Hikaru will be sleepy after his bath and bedtime story and will stay in Beloved's futon with his blanket and thus with a kiss goodnight, I can relax and enjoy my book. If I'm unluckly... I will look up to find Hikaru's face grinning at me like the rising full moon over my reading light and my supposed "quiet time" becomes punctuated with "GO TO SLEEP!" and wrestling matches over my book, light, phone, pillow, glasses, or older brother's bedtime items (A book, a rotating stuffed animal, and his Mickey Mouse ears from Tokyo Disneyland), and with random grabs and stuffs from Beloved trying to get the kid into bed and settled down. Which works for about a minute before Hikaru crawls out and tries again, with giggles.
Last night took the cake with a 45 minute marathon between Hikaru who wouldn't go to sleep and who kept trying to get to Daddy's toys, Makoto who was wide awake because his younger brother was walking back and forth (with occasional attempts at toy/book theft) just next to his head, and the thunderstorm.
I like thunder, the boys like thunder, Beloved is terrified of it.
So, thunder booms. Wife eep's. I attempt to be the good husband and hold her. Get complaints/giggles from Makoto because I have to lean over him and his futon to get to Beloved. Hikaru sees his chance and runs towards the now undefended smartphone/book/light. More giggles from the kid in the middle. I yell "GO TO SLEEP!" and shove one son under his blanket and the other one back to his bed. Board re-sets, and the thunder rolls again.
Like I said, 45 minutes until the most welcome sound in the world is heard, the nightly concert of my boys' snoring... With Hikaru completely out of Mommy's futon, sound asleep upside down on the floor.
Oh well, just cover him with a blanket and call this battle of the Sleep Wars won. Besides, I still haven't gotten past the starting page of my book.
Ah my friend, have you heard about child sleeping arrangements in Japan? See, whereas there's a new fangled co-sleeping movement in the US (Which with all things parenting has started up its own war), Japan has traditionally co-slept. Cribs are actually a bit of a newer idea for the Japanese. It makes sense of course, in small Japanese houses where rooms tend to be multi-functional, having a dedicated room JUST for the baby is silly, add in the room a crib takes and...
So at the old, two room house, we started co-sleeping. That is, I'd be on my futon in one room, and Beloved and Makoto would be on her futon in the other. When Hikaru arrived, we moved Makoto to my futon, and eventually to his own next to mine. I have to admit, there are some nice advantages to the arrangement. When the boys viewed Mommy as a lunch, nursing at night was a simple affair of Beloved rolling over a bit, opening the front of her pajamas, popping out a boob and dozing as one of the boys got his midnight snack. Given we were (and still are) on Japanese style futons on the floor, we didn't have any worries about falling, climbing the bars, or getting heads stuck anywhere. And there is (usually) an advantage in cranky kids. When Makoto has a nightmare, or Hikaru suddenly decides he's been abandoned and we hear the midnight wail, instead of having to get up and stumble down the hall towards the source of the cries; a halfway awake "Hey, kiddo, it's ok, Daddy's here" and a pat usually settles them back down to the arms of Lord Morpheus.
There's some disadvantages of course. Two kids in the bed makes it a bit hard to have more, shall we say, adult conversations and activities with the Beloved and we're reduced to waiting with baited breath for them to nod off before sneaking out, assuming we don't fall asleep first.
Having to pre-plan does take some of the fun out of it.
And of course should there be any kind of nighttime release from either end of a kid, well it can get messy and not just on said kid's bed. The first night Makoto had stomach flu ended up with me having a lack of pajamas and bedding as well as him. And a lovely smell that took forever to get rid of. There's also the issue of length. Traditionally, you'd find kids co-sleeping with their parents in Japan well into, if not through, elementary school. Beloved tells me that it wasn't until she was in 2nd or 3rd grade that she decided to move out of her parents' bedroom into her own room at night. Now that we have our own house, we're all sleeping in the same room, which is a bit daunting to think of doing this for the next 7 to 10 years or so.
But all-in-all, I don't have a problem with the co-sleeping and most of the time I'm an advocate for it. Except recently.
We have a problem, his name is Hikaru. Makoto, the eldest, was a kid who bowed to pressure and just conformed to his parents' sleep schedule. If we went to bed at 9:30, that's when he went to bed. We might want a book before bed, but for the most part he was willing to settle down and start getting those Zzzz's (Makoto's sleeping issues are not liking mid-day naps, an inability to get up that doesn't involve a tow cable, and a cranky disposition 3-out-of-5-times when he does wake up). Hikaru however is a baby on his own timetable, damn what his parents' want. When he wants to sleep, he sleeps, even if it's on the floor in the middle of the toys he was just playing with.
 |
| Let sleeping babies lie. |
IF I am lucky, Hikaru will be sleepy after his bath and bedtime story and will stay in Beloved's futon with his blanket and thus with a kiss goodnight, I can relax and enjoy my book. If I'm unluckly... I will look up to find Hikaru's face grinning at me like the rising full moon over my reading light and my supposed "quiet time" becomes punctuated with "GO TO SLEEP!" and wrestling matches over my book, light, phone, pillow, glasses, or older brother's bedtime items (A book, a rotating stuffed animal, and his Mickey Mouse ears from Tokyo Disneyland), and with random grabs and stuffs from Beloved trying to get the kid into bed and settled down. Which works for about a minute before Hikaru crawls out and tries again, with giggles.
Last night took the cake with a 45 minute marathon between Hikaru who wouldn't go to sleep and who kept trying to get to Daddy's toys, Makoto who was wide awake because his younger brother was walking back and forth (with occasional attempts at toy/book theft) just next to his head, and the thunderstorm.
I like thunder, the boys like thunder, Beloved is terrified of it.
So, thunder booms. Wife eep's. I attempt to be the good husband and hold her. Get complaints/giggles from Makoto because I have to lean over him and his futon to get to Beloved. Hikaru sees his chance and runs towards the now undefended smartphone/book/light. More giggles from the kid in the middle. I yell "GO TO SLEEP!" and shove one son under his blanket and the other one back to his bed. Board re-sets, and the thunder rolls again.
Like I said, 45 minutes until the most welcome sound in the world is heard, the nightly concert of my boys' snoring... With Hikaru completely out of Mommy's futon, sound asleep upside down on the floor.
Oh well, just cover him with a blanket and call this battle of the Sleep Wars won. Besides, I still haven't gotten past the starting page of my book.
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