The energizer, the hellion and the sleeper

By Published On: June 6th, 2016

Nolan, Graham and Austin. There’s my empire; there’s the three title characters for this post. And with summer all but here, they’ll be on display all day, every day.

Nolan is done with school this week, which means it’s the time of year most parents of small children dread: school-free summer. As for me? I’m leaning slightly towards the excited end of the spectrum while only a small piece of me is dreading the non-stop action that The Energizer provides on a daily basis.

Case and point. The other day he woke up at 5:15 a.m., an ungodly hour by any means. He was jovial all morning, went to school, “rested” during naptime but definitely didn’t sleep, ran with his friends after school for 45 minutes, got home, played outside for an hour before we went to tee-ball practice. Then we went to get some ice cream, which was followed by a little “Wheel of Fortune” and bed. The kid was up for like 16 hours when all was said and done. He had a few bouts with not listening and looked like he was going to pass out at least a handful of times, but he powered through.

And that was with him going to school for six hours.

Graham has another year or so before he heads off to preschool, but he’s still taking a few-hour nap midday, giving Linds a little reprieve at even strength with Austin, who usually sleeps around the same time. But like I said, that’ll all come crashing to an end in a few days.

We have done it this way with Nolan, Nolan and Graham, and now Graham and Austin— simultaneous naptimes! It’s all in the scheduling and the routine you, as a parent, create. Not only do they rest up and recharge their batteries but it helps us recharge ours as well. We need to be on top of our game—more so in the summer—if we expect to keep up with the three of these maniacs.

I think I caught a lot of flack and opposition on the last post with my “three is easier than two” opinion, so I’ll amend it slightly. Three is easier than two at this stage, the stage where our youngest is still a stationary eating/sleeping/pooping machine. Check back in a year or two and my tune might have changed as all three are sure to be non-stop moving, most likely in different directions.

Graham continues to be the wild card of the bunch, getting into everything, slinging everything behind him as he’s rifling through his wagon of toys. The thing with him is that even when he’s not tired, he still obliges politely when we mention that it’s naptime. His nap can be anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours, depending on how tired he is or how quiet we are.

Austin, aka The Sleeper, does a swell job of … you guessed it … sleeping. He’ll give us hell for an hour-plus around 7:30 or so at night until he we finally cave and Linds feeds him. He’ll immediately follow his feeding up with a few precious hours of uninterrupted sleep, sometimes until three in the morning. I’ve been taking Linds’ advice and catching the Zs when he does instead of catching up on the latest episode of “Primal Survival.” After another feeding whenever he wakes up, he gives us another two-ish hours until sunrise, when he eats again and sits in bed, awake but quiet, fighting his need for sleep.

His awake time is getting better too as he’s more alert and has actually started non-gas smiling, which has to be a record, right?

Recap: Nolan never stops moving. Graham never stops making a mess. Austin sleeps very well after his 90 minutes of hell and smiles even when he’s not gassy.

You can prep and prep and let the other siblings know there’s a new baby coming to love with them and they say they’re fine with it, but the true test comes when said new baby is actually living with them. So far, they’ve both passed with flying colors. And they sleep through his middle-of-the-night crying as I change his diaper. So, despite their temperaments all being different, they’re all getting along awesomely, which makes us as parents very, very happy.