Oh, what a night!

Last night was the first night it was just Rich and I left to control these two kids. It did not go well. Not well, at all. Here's a quick re-cap of the last 12-ish hours:

9:00 PM - Joseph, who sleeps through the night regularly, has been soundly asleep for the last 90 min. Conrad's just had a feeding, was a little fussy afterwards, but Rich has him settled and sleeping in his crib. We decide to head to bed.

9:30 PM - It's only 9:30 and we are enjoying actually being in bed together for the first time in two weeks. I actually comment to Rich "The newborn phase seems easier this time. Makes me want to have a whole gaggle of these kids". He gets a little scared but agrees it is easier.

10:00 PM - We've both dozed off only to be woken up by really loud thunder and heavy rain. The heavy rain turns into hail - really, large hail that is pounding our roof and we can hear coming through our chimney. I suddenly realize Joseph is standing up in his crib screaming. His room is right next to ours but we couldn't even hear him screaming because the hail was that loud. Rich goes into his room and brings back a terrified Joseph screaming "Mommy, Daddy". We cuddle him into our bed where he won't let either of us let go of him.

11:30 PM - Joseph's still in our bed because every time we hear a distant thunder rumble, he buries his head into our chest. No one has slept because in between thunder, Joseph wants to tell us how the baby goes "Wah! Wah! Wah!", ask for the "lights on" and to turn his "shows" on. It's clear Joseph's not going to sleep in our bed so once we are thunder free for 15 minutes, we send him back to his crib. We all settle in from some sleep...finally.

12:00 AM - Conrad is fussing and needs to be fed. Rich gets up to tend to him. 5 minutes later a loud thunder rumble comes through and Joseph is screaming again. He comes back into our bed. After 30 minutes, Conrad's crying and fussing from gas, which is making Joseph annoyed. I take Joseph into his room to try and rock him to sleep. He's having none of it - just wants to ask me for his books, airplanes and the cat. Back into his crib he goes. He screams his head off for 15 minutes, which only makes Conrad's fussing worse.

12:30 AM - I gather up a pillow and comforter and head into Joseph's room. I spend the next 30 minutes laying on his floor, reassuring him I am there until he settles down and falls asleep.

2:00 AM - I wake up on Joseph's floor after a quick snooze and sneak out. Conrad's finally settled back into his crib after a ridiculous 5 ounces of milk! I think to myself that Conrad will certainly sleep a solid 4 hours with that much food in his belly and Joseph should be good until after 6 am - I can survive on 4 hours of sleep.

2:30 AM - I've barely settled back in bed and Conrad starts crying. How can this kid be hungry already? Sure enough, he is. He's in our bed for the next 90 minutes either eating or fussing.

4:00 AM - After a brief snooze, Conrad is back awake and wanting to eat again! I take him into the den so that Rich can at least get some sleep. For the next hour he eats and fusses and eats some more and fusses some more. He seems so uncomfortable from gas. By 5, he finally settled into sleep on my chest. I sleep in fits for a little bit.

6:30 AM - Joseph wakes up screaming for Rich. He's ready to start his day, which means so are we. AWESOME!

Not surprisingly, Joseph is a hot cranky mess today. He's 3 hours short of his normal sleep, he doesn't understand where PopPop and Grandma T went or why it's 10 am and he hasn't been out of the house yet. It's tantrum central here today.

Conrad continues to eat extraordinary quantities of food every 2 hours and then be completely fussy afterwards. Rich actually called the pedi this morning because he decided this wasn't normal. They suggested it *could* be a food allergy and said I should limit my diet...which includes no caffeine. Hello, phone nurse, did you miss the "we were up all night" part? No caffeine today? I also checked out Dr. Sear's elimination diet for food allergies. For 2 WEEKS I should eat organic turkey or lamb, rice or potatoes (with salt and pepper only), squash and pears ONLY to see if the gassiness will get better. I love ya, Conrad, but if that's the solution, I hope you like formula.

For now, I am just going to try some gas reducing methods and chalk it up to a really bad night. Hopefully, tonight will be better. If not....pray for us.

UPDATE: It's 1 pm, Joseph's nap time. Conrad just fed and is actually sleeping well. We think we'll squeeze in a nap while Joseph naps. Nope - he's been screaming for 10 solid minutes in his crib. He's so overtired and that never is good news for his napping. Yes....start praying for us.