Of Sleep and Discipline

We are tired.

We moved Leah into Anna Claire's room about a week ago when their new bunk beds were delivered. The goal was to make the entire top floor for all the kids so they had their own space and we have ours - including a guest room on the 1st floor for out-of-town guests to stay as long as they like.

The bedroom turned out adorable - I'll post pictures soon. However, the transition has been a rough one. Leah is still at the age where she REALLY needs a nap in the afternoon - at least 4 days a week. Since she moved into Anna Claire's room, she has only napped once - and that was because she fell asleep in the car and I carried her upstairs. Every other time, she just plays. The end result is that she often falls asleep before dinner or during dinner and then she either doesn't wake up until the next morning or she takes a short snooze then doesn't want to go to bed until after 9 pm. And she's no longer sleeping in like she was before she moved rooms either. This has resulted in a new level of defiance and desire to assert her independence (usually shouting "NO!") at every opportunity, and sometimes she even takes a swing at us. Some of this could be her age, too - it's hard to differentiate what is age-related and what is sleep deprivation-related.

She has also figured out over the summer how to push almost all of Anna Claire's buttons - and vice versa. The fighting between them is crazy. And it's mostly over dumb stuff. Now that I think about it, I'm fairly sure the stuff my brother and I fought about was equally dumb but it seemed important at the time. My mother is a saint - I have no idea how she did it without joining the circus.

Anna Claire is going through an equally frustrating phase. We are trying to teach her the importance of obeying the first time we ask her to do something. Instead, we're met with (a) reasons she can't do it, (b) numerous questions about why we need her to do it, or (c) total avoidance. We've had to come down pretty hard on her lately and take away fun things we'd planned in order to send our message.

I know consistency is a good thing and it's the RIGHT thing to do when it comes to discipline. If we're not consistent now with both girls, they will be monsters by the time the baby is born. But sometimes it would be nice to just take the day (or week) off, you know? There are evenings when I just want everyone to get along and for them to stop needling each other.

I recognize my tolerance level is probably short because I'm so close to having the baby and I'm not sleeping well either. I'm hoping that our consistency, especially in discipline, will pay off soon. After all, it's not a matter of doing the right thing - it's a matter of doing the right thing LONG ENOUGH.