Between the hours of 1:30-4:30am

To start off this post, it's important to spend a moment or two catching things up. I've mentioned that my sister Robin is in town, but I think I failed to mention that I watched her kids for 4 days while she took a mommy vacation to visit some girlfriends. It all went really well (much better than I had anticipated with a 6 year old, 2-2 year olds, and an 11 month old). One of the great discoveries from the sleepovers was that both my kids did great having someone else sleep in his room. So I decided when everyone left that I'd move Joshua downstairs to Andrew's room and begin their childhood roommate journey.

We shuffled around the cribs, added a bookshelf, took out the toys (they ended up upstairs in the guest room/new toy room) and viola! My kids are roommates!

The first night was a definite party for them. It took them over an hour to settle down they were having so much fun talking and playing. Why sleep when there's a friend to talk to? The next night took less time to get to "quiet," and since they've been sick (see below), sleep has come almost immediately for both of them.

One of my hesitations in putting the kids in the same room before now was that I didn't want TWO screaming kids in the middle of the night. I just figured that if one woke up, the other would too. So far it hasn't been bad at all, with just a few exceptions:

Joshua and Andy are sick. It started with Joshy and a runny nose, progressed into a cough and a fever making both kids miserable. For whatever reason, when Andy got it, he got it a lot worse than Joshua. His fever's been higher, his cough has been yuckier, and he's had a worse time sleeping.

Last night progressed as follows:

7:30 bedtime. After a dose of Tylenol, both kids fall asleep quickly.

10:30 Kraig and I make to it bed after a movie.

1:30 I wake from a weird dream to Andy screaming. I run downstairs and he's yelling about the bugs that are all over him. His fever has spiked so I dose him with Motrin, give him some water and try and assure him that there are no bugs. It's just a bad dream.

1:40-2:30 Andy screams every 10-15 minutes about the bugs. The fever's not broken yet and I think he's just revisiting the really bad fever dream every time he closes his eyes. He finally settles down and I get to lay back down and sleep. Josh gets up a few times also because of the screaming. His fever's returned too. Where did I put the Motrin?!?!?

3:30 It's the bugs again this time, but he's not awake, just yelling in his sleep. Fever's gone down. I reassure him and he settles back down.

4:30 Just moaning and crying out mentioning the bugs. Quiets down quickly when I come in.

5:30 Kraig's alarm rings to get him out of bed and to work by 6am. He leaves and Josh awakes and starts crying. I crawl under his crib to find the missing binkys, praying that he won't wake Andy. Thankfully he settles back down quickly.

7:55 Robin calls and wakes me to see if I'm going to church (she's coming to my 8am ward). Nope! I go back to sleep.

8:40 Josh wakes up happy! I go and get him so Andy can keep sleeping. We share a banana and wait for Andy.

9:30 Andy wakes up. He's calmly asking about the bugs that were all over him last night. We get up and have breakfast.

Sigh. I can't imagine how scary it was for Andy last night. I specifically remember one fever dream I had when I was a little girl--my second grade teacher was giving me homework--and how terrified I was. I hope this bug thing doesn't scar him for life.