so many lessons to learn...

there were precisely three times today when i thought to myself for just a half a second, "i'm getting this thing down. i can totally take care of three kids. cake". and then all three times, within five minutes of my confident (cocky?) thought, reality slapped me in the face. ha.

episode one: after a couple hours of both girls sleeping and bug and i enjoying some one-on-one time (which was amazing), the ladies woke up, just in time for me to try and get nolan down for a nap. that wasn't the reality slap though. that i am getting used to. it comes in a minute.

so, i changed both girls' diapers, wrangled nolan with books and an "animal" into the room, got the girls set up on my gigantic fancy nursing pillow and we started reading books. that ended early as bug was acting out and was obviously very sleepy. he miraculously fell asleep within 5 minutes without a fuss. the girls and i then moved into the living room. they chilled out in their swing/bouncy seats as i showered (what!?) and we "played" for a bit and then they both nursed. alice conked out first, about 45 minutes after nolan. lilah followed within 20 minutes or so. here it comes...

"i'm amazing! all my babies are asleep. i'm clean! homemade chicken soup is essentially done for dinner. i'm going to get sooooo much packing done now!"

i managed to get one bathroom cleaned out, organized and boxed (really more of a cubby/storage thing, but whatever...it's ready) and then alice woke up. literally two minutes later, lilah woke up (drenched in her own pee)...and exactly two minutes after that? yup, you guessed it, nolan too. everyone was still tired and a little grumpy and nolan has a cold, so he didn't feel good either. my packing ended and we landed on the couch nursing and watching "care bears". *sigh*

episode two: as we watch above mentioned "care bears," the girls eventually fall back asleep and i successfully transfer them to the bedroom. i finished cooking dinner and nolan and i played a rousing game of baseball with pillows as first, second and their base, a sock as homeplate, a piece of a rhythm stick (?) musical instrument as the bat and an imaginary ball (all balls and ball-like items have been banned from the house). it was awesome. then we managed to eat dinner, bathe him and get him ready for bed with the sisters stayin asleep the whole time. 

now...throughout the day, they had not managed to stay awake for any period if time longer than about an hour and a half or so before their next snooze. sooo...i let them sleep through all of the above because it is way easier to do all that with just nolan. 

by 6:15, i decided to call it. i got them both up and changed. i nursed them while bug played a little more and naively thought that maybe then, they would just hang out for a big while I read nolan books and laid with him for a minute. again...here is where i'm thinking that i've planned it all out and it's gonna be great...and...nope.

instead it went like this: in the room by 7:00. set girls in their boppy pillows and they were mesmerized by the ceiling fan through the entire first book. they weren't super stoked about it, but they even hung on through the second one. but then they started chirping. Nolan was (again) not working with me so I moved from his bed (twin mattress on the floor between the queen and the wall) to the big one with my giant nursing pillow and the now relatively feisty girls. he looked like he was going to be cool with it. he even rolled over and out his arm/hand over his eyes (how he usually falls asleep). and then...

both girls melted. they were as over sitting in that room as i was (nearly an hour later). i tried to explain to nolan that he needed to go to sleep...i have him a count down...he kept pushing the limits and fighting sleep...and then the girls and  i left the room. he has never actually gone to sleep without someone laying with him (namely me and occasionally anthony since the girls arrived) and he is sick, so you can imagine how well that went over. he lasted about three minutes before walking into the living room and refusing to budge. i got him set up on the couch and sat back down to nurse the girls (yes, again). not more than 15 minutes earlier, i sent anthony a text message saying, "in the middle of an epic bedtime fail". and then just like that, all three were asleep once again.

episode three: "yes! i did it! success! sure nolan is alseep on the couch, but there were few tears, little fight once we left the room and he was instantly asleep. hurray. cake."

and then...i tried to transfer the girls. they both woke up. i was able to lull alice back to sleep by laying next to her, but lilah was less convinced. so we headed back out to the living room for more nursing while we rocked and rocked and i typed a good chunk of this blog on my stupid phone. and then...nearly three hours after the whole process began, they were finally all asleep...and transferred to the beds.

now it is 10:00pm. i'm tired, hungry and have packed a grand total of two boxes today. my hubs has been at work for 11 hours and isn't coming home anytime soon. feeling frustrated, i look at my sleeping babes and smile (and then feel bad for being impatient with my sick little man). everyday, they teach me something. i don't always like learning it, but they teach it anyway. :)

LESSONS:
1) don't ever count on all three sleeping at once to accomplish a task.
2) at the most inconvenient time, lilah will wake up (this is our third night in a row of this).
3) don't ever feel too confident. it is just too much for the universe to let it be.
4) it isn't the end of the world if a baby falls asleep on the couch...but...
5) before losing my mind, figure out new bedtime routine for bug that does not include me sitting uncomfortably propped up trying to appease two infants for an hour.
6) don't blog...pack boxes. doh.