Unbelievable

Unbelievable. I don't know what is going on with the boys right now. I thought that getting them on a good regimen for their skin would stop the endless waking from itching. And I thought Tuesday night was bad. It got much worse Wednesday night. I was up with W all night - I think we both slept from 4-6a.m. and that is it. Unbelievable. No naps on Thursday. But the boys were doing much better in regards to playing together and communicating with me rather going straight to screaming and throwing things. And I made sure they were in bed by 7...and they made it all the way through until 6 a.m. Hallelujah! Unfortunately for me, our new (and questionable) neighbors across the street decided to have a screaming match at 2 a.m. in their front yard. They were SO loud and then I couldn't get back to sleep for 2 hours. Unbelievable. Why couldn't they have done that on a night when I was already up (every night since Tues but that one) Fast forward to Friday night where I was getting desperate....surely they will sleep great since again they didn't nap on Friday again except for a 15-min catnap in the car on the way home from the zoo. When they woke up from that little car nap; things went downhill way fast and we had a very unpleasant evening...I was counting the minutes until bedtime...but again, sleep eluded us; and W didn't get to sleep until after midnight with another appearance around 2 a.m. and then at 4:30 a.m.
No nap on Saturday despite my sitting in their room with them for TWO hours. Why did I do that? Because Geoff will sit in their room on weekends and tell them to get back in their bed until they go to sleep. And yes, it works for him. It has never once worked for me. I couldn't believe it...these guys were so exhausted that they were nodding off an noon in the car on the way home from swim lessons. Unbelievable. And again I prayed for the boys to sleep last night. But from 10 p.m. until 12:12 a.m. I had SIX sleep interruptions...J up screaming and banging on his door twice and W four times. I had had it. I HAD to sleep. So I made sure they were OK, tucked them back in and slept in the guest bedroom with the air purifier.
I guess they just are needing to check that I am still there at night- I don't know. And I have been good all week about getting in bed by 9:30 because I know they will be up by 6 a.m. And I can't nap during the day if they don't nap. Ugh. I used to look so forward to nap time but now I dread it. It is a battle not worth fighting. I am just going to return to my quiet-time plan and put them in their room for an hour and if they sleep they sleep if not then they don't.
Now that I have my sleep frustrations off my chest, I am going to play Ralph's World song: M-O-M-M-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E while I drink some.