Sleep

Nobody sleeps in our house.

My son has night terrors (we think), and they keep getting worse. He wakes up at least three or four times every night terrified and screaming and will only calm down if one of us goes in with him. Usually when we try to sneak away he'll wake back up and the cycle continues. More often than not that means my wife is up all night with him.

My daughter is a better sleeper, but she has a lot of trouble getting to sleep - she says she's too scared to sleep. She'll eventually fall asleep, but it will often take three or four trips downstairs. Then often in the middle of the night she'll wake up and tell us she had a bad dream. She talks about being scared of monsters, but I think there's more going on that she doesn't know how to talk about.

I try my best to share the load with my wife - when I was recovering from the surgery I couldn't, but these days I can get up to be with the kids. The problem is the kids really want to be with her and pitch a fit if I go in with them. So what ends up happening is that even if I get up, they make so much noise that everyone wakes up and my wife has trouble getting back to sleep.

I think the kids are both legitimately scared but don't know how to process what they are scared about. We haven't really talked that much about the virus, but they know that a lot of people are getting sick and that we are trying hard to keep everyone safe. They know that school isn't coming back this year and that they can't see their friends, grandparents, or teachers. The disruption and stress is hard enough for us adults, it must be terrible on little minds.

And of course the lack of sleep is driving us all more than a little bit crazy.