The night from hell.

Since everyone on FB and Twitter seems to want to know why this day is so rough and I need prayer, I have to explain my night. :P
Previous to last night, we have been having a terrible time with getting my oldest to sleep. She had her binky taken away in November, and ever since then it has been a huge struggle to get her to sleep AT ALL. What little sleep she does get is catch up sleep and it happens only after she completely collapses from exhaustion. Not sleeping affects every aspect of her personality and she has become almost impossible-- it has taken every ounce of patience and strength in me to deal with the resulting behavioral issues, and despite trying everything in the book, I still do not have a sleep solution that works other than physically lying down next to her and ensuring she keeps her eyes closed and her body still until she passes out.
So, the night before last she was particularly challenging and wouldn't go to sleep until almost midnight.
Because of that I was utterly exhausted-- it was my third night in a row going to bed at midnight and from 7-midnight is the only chunk of sleep the baby takes before waking up every 1 1/2 to 2 hrs for morning clusterfeeding that lasts til 7ish. needless to say, I NEED my daughter to go to bed by 8 at the latest, or I am a wreck the following day.
So having had barely any sleep at all the night before (less than two hours for the third night in a row!)I decided to go to bed as soon as the kids were asleep.
Of course, this ended up being the night that not only would my oldest not sleep but that my two year old decided to start copying her and that the baby selected to just stay up. She's been nursing round the clock for a few days so I just figured "well... I will take her to bed with me."

Of course, everytime I lay down with her, she wailed-- all she wanted was to be held upright and nursed. Probably, she has a variation of the cold I caught from my two-year old.... which has me totally laid out.
So there I was wishing i could go to sleep and instead every five minutes or so one of my kids were trying to keep from sleeping for various reasons. Finally, the other two got settled and then the baby decides she will wake up for an hour or so. Resigned, I decide to sit on the couch and hold her while watching tree monster movies on Sy Fy with the father in law.
That's when the baby finally fell asleep. I went to bed and was awakened virtually every hour by one after another kid.People were hot, they were cold, they were scared, they were thirsty. We basically played musical beds until about 3:30 when I decided I couldn't take the interrupted sleep any longer and took everyone to sleep on the floor with me in the living room. When the middle child
was awakened from an uncomfortable sleep I put him back in his crib. I came back to bed on the living room floor with the baby only to be awakened nearly as soon as I fell back asleep again by a COCKROACH which was scampering on my arm... one that had crawled in on the wood we are using to heat the house. I told you, cockroaches are Satan's minions. Having smashed it and totally grossed myself out, I tried to go back to sleep.

At around 4:30 or so, I heard a blood curdling wail from the kids' room. I ran in there, nearly severing my nipple that the baby had a death grip on, and found my son in his crib, drenched, and my daughter in his crib, guiltily holding an empty bottle of holy water. I found out later that he had been -- as per a scary dream she had had--- "turning into a seal again" so she thought she would give him a holy water bath. While he was sleeping.

This was one of those moments that will be hilarious with time, but in the moment I was beside myself with frustration, exhaustion, and anger. Needless to say, the kids were awake from then on.

A terrible migraine ensued (from the cold and lack of sleep, I imagine) and the day, indeed, looked bleak... prompting me to ask for prayer.Especially since my husband had to be gone all day!

And that, my friends, is the story of the night from hell.
I seem to have these a little too often. There HAS to be a way to make the older kids sleep!! When I was a kid, you couldn't get me OUT of my bed. What is with my children??