I can't tell you how many times in the last year I responded to "Wow, that's going to be awesome!" with "It's going to be hard. There are going to be lots of tears." I'm sure some of you heard that from me.
What's interesting so far is that the most difficult parts of a moderately difficult first week are two things that I hadn't even worried about -- the time zone adjustment and the weather. We are five nights in now and last night was the first somewhat normal night of sleep that I've had. I travel a ton and usually it just takes me a day or two to get roughly on schedule, nothing like this.
Erin is in a similar boat as me but a little worse off and the kids are still not even close. Both Paige and Clay will sleep for 4 hours one night, then 12 the next, the 4 the following, etc. Last night we think Paige finally fell asleep at 6AM and then we had to wake her around noon. That is not good.
And the weather definitely has not helped things. It has been in the upper 80's to upper 90's here the entire time so our apartment stays pretty hot all night. Oh how we appreciate the AC back home.
The result is we have tired and often cranky kids, days when we can't get out to do much, and patience often pushed to the brink. For the first few days I was impressed with my ability to maintain my calm. But as the days, heat, and lack of sleep have worn on, it is more and more difficult to tolerate the complaints.
I'm definitely looking forward to everybody getting better sleep and then the crisp evenings of September.
What's interesting so far is that the most difficult parts of a moderately difficult first week are two things that I hadn't even worried about -- the time zone adjustment and the weather. We are five nights in now and last night was the first somewhat normal night of sleep that I've had. I travel a ton and usually it just takes me a day or two to get roughly on schedule, nothing like this.
Erin is in a similar boat as me but a little worse off and the kids are still not even close. Both Paige and Clay will sleep for 4 hours one night, then 12 the next, the 4 the following, etc. Last night we think Paige finally fell asleep at 6AM and then we had to wake her around noon. That is not good.
And the weather definitely has not helped things. It has been in the upper 80's to upper 90's here the entire time so our apartment stays pretty hot all night. Oh how we appreciate the AC back home.
The result is we have tired and often cranky kids, days when we can't get out to do much, and patience often pushed to the brink. For the first few days I was impressed with my ability to maintain my calm. But as the days, heat, and lack of sleep have worn on, it is more and more difficult to tolerate the complaints.
I'm definitely looking forward to everybody getting better sleep and then the crisp evenings of September.
Hang in there, I see a cooling trend headed your way! Is using Melotonin a possibility to help get adjusted to the time change? What does Dr. Edwards think of that? Do the kids have access to Disney channel (Grace and Jonathan want to know, and are now hitting us up for TVs in their bedrooms!) Love to you all - Deb
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb! Yep, cooler weather is encouraging and on the way. We all got better sleep last night and the kids were troopers today.
ReplyDeleteBoth the kids have TVs in their rooms but no Disney channel. Paige has kept hers off -- much more interested in reading Harry Potter -- but Clay has watched a bit. Everything is in French but he still watches the cartoons. Maybe he is learning something -- at minimum the sound of the language. Another benefit of better sleep is I don't have to worry about him coming across inappropriate content in the middle of the night!