bedtime chaos

On Sunday night, as I attended church without Bryan, I thought, "Residency sure prepared me well to be a doctor's wife. I sure value it when he is around and the times when he is gone are nothing compared to residency life." Bryan was working Sunday night and I was feeling quite comfortable. I do prefer him to be with me, especially when I go to church but I was doing quite well without him. The kids made it fully dressed, fed and happy to church on time (nothing like a few weeks ago when Jaden went without shoes).

Tonight I had a wake-up call. Bryan is again working tonight. I fed the kids and started getting them ready for bed early. It was a good start but it quickly started going downhill. The boys were not listening to anything I was asking them to do. I tried not to give any negative consequences because it usually makes the situation go downhill very fast and they become completely uncooperative. I held out. We got ready for bed. It took longer than I would have liked but we made it, or so I thought. All madness broke lose. Kids couldn't stop getting out of bed. Stuffed animals were taken away. Lots of crying was belted out. I closed their door. Both boys came out crying and screaming. This was the last straw. I went up to discover a centimeter wide spider crawling on their wall. I killed it and flushed it. Now we had to deal with the fear of spiders. More crying. The door is left open but stuffed animals do not return. I go downstairs. More crying. Finally quiet at 8:45, 90 minutes after I started getting them ready for bed.

I really, really, very strongly dislike putting the boys to bed. This is Bryan's job at our house. I had to do this a lot more during residency and I disliked it then but it has gotten even worse it seems.

Bryan enjoys it and I am glad for that. In theory, reading books, praying and singing to my boys can be very enjoyable. Throw in cranky, tired boys and all chaos breaks lose. I do not look forward to tucking in my boys again. I am hoping it is at least a few weeks away until I have to do this again.