Up All Night!

So as I was thinking of a blog title tonight I decided that "Up All Night" could really be the theme of my life for the past 17 months!  Ava has been a terrible sleeper since she was a baby and I have spent many many nights up with her, praying that she will go back to sleep and make it through the night.  No wonder the dark circles and wrinkles under my eyes have intensified so much over the past year.  I don't mean to rag on Ava so much, she actually has brought so much joy to our lives that it is worth every sleepless night.  She is a funny girl with a funny personality and I feel like the luckiest mom to have both of my girls in my family.

Ok, on to what life has been like lately.  I am pretty sure Ava is getting all of her molars in at the same time, and that has created quite a cranky baby!  She has not slept the past three nights because I am guessing her teeth are hurting her.  As soon as I get her down, she wakes back up again and I am back in there with her.  I don't want to make her cry too much because I feel bad if she really is in a lot of pain.  Anyways, then last night Audrey came home from a birthday party telling me that her stomach really hurt.  A couple hours later she is throwing up all over the place and the fun night begins.  Now keep in mind that we have already had the stomach flu in this house in the past couple months, and we have already had two different sets of colds, so I am just like you have got to be kidding me - not again!!  (Also both girls woke up a couple days ago with colds, so this is just really fun).  I am able to get Audrey to bed but she wakes up every hour moaning and in pain and throws up again.  Luckily all bodily fluids make it either to the bucket or the toilet so there is no huge mess this time around.  (It's been happening so much we are getting to be pros at how to handle everything!)  Meanwhile Ava went to bed around 9, but is awake again at 10 and there is no getting her back to sleep. After a long time trying and finally letting her watch a couple of shows she goes back down at 1:00 in the morning, and yes Nate and I are exhausted.  Everyone is finally asleep and I think Audrey is done throwing up.  Time to sleep!  Well, it was not to be!  Audrey gets up at 4:30 with a fever and after getting her a drink and some medicine and cuddling I have figured out that she is not going back to sleep.  She is up for the day.  So I set her up with a movie on the couch and hope that somehow miraculously she will fall back asleep, but I know her better than that.  I head back to bed around 5:30 and just as I am starting to fall asleep Ava wakes up at 6 and she is done sleeping and ready for the day.  Yes, it was a fun night.  And this is just an example of many such nights in the Panter residence.  Why do we want to have more kids, sometimes I am not so sure.  Well my head is spinning, my eyes are watering, and my body is telling me to go to bed.  Let's hope tonight is better!