Sleepless in Arizona

While on our trip, we had a hotel room that called itself a "suite" but we had five people, two queen beds and a pull out sofa...not sweet.  Not so spacious when you add all our sweaty bodies.  Since there were only two beds, Quinn was assigned the fold out sofa and then one bed would be occupied by Ross and myself and the other by the big boys.

Mistake numero uno!

On our first night at the hotel, the boys fought and fought and fought at bed time.  Now, not your regular argument about covers, but actual fist fights because "he's touching me!"  "He is breathing on me!"  I'm going to pound you sorts of stuff.  After A LOT of muffled yelling from mom and dad (we were in a hotel after all) the big boys fell asleep and while Ross was getting Quinn to settle down, I started to crash out.  Just as I was drifting to never land, I heard a muffled scream.  A muffled blood curdling scream.  The kind of scream that comes from Wyatt at least three times a day.  I opened my eyes to find him on the floor, completely wrapped and suffocating in the comforter of the hotel bed.  I unwrapped him in the dark, told him to quit screaming and plopped him in bed with me because at the time, I sort of assumed Elliott may have kicked him or pushed him and didn't think that sending him back was a good idea.

By the time Ross got Quinn to sleep, Wyatt and I were out cold in our bed so rather than move Wyatt, he just got in the bed with Elliott.

Mistake numero dos!

Never sleep with your insane sleeper children.  At several points throughout the night, Elliott started talking and mumbling LOUDLY, or, laughing a  pretty noisy hyena-like laugh.  He did it most of the night while flipping and flapping in bed with his dad like a seal, kicking and flopping.  Ross didn't sleep much.

I didn't fare much better with Wyatt.  At least three times in the night he got up on his knees, like a meerkat or prairie dog to survey the land.  He was wiggly enough that it woke me up and I just watched him.  He'd get high on his knees, pull his hands up limply to his face, look around, and then just dead weight collapse back into the bed - on top of me in some sort of tangled and painful way.

When Ross and I woke up, exhausted, on Saturday morning, we vowed never to do that again.

Fast forward a couple nights to the night Ross' brother hosted us at his home.  We'd had a great day playing, a great meal prepared by my sister-in-law and a very cooperative bed time routine.  That was, until it was time to go to bed.  The air mattress that the boys were sleeping on had lost some air - when there are 6 little boys jumping on it, that tends to happen.   The deflation, plus the weight difference in the boys, and their general sour attitudes made a recipe for disaster.  After hours of lying in bed wide awake myself I got up around 1:30 and took a pill.  Okay, a xanex because I was freaking out a little.  When I came back to bed, Quinn was awake and Ross fed him a bottle.  Once Ross came back to bed and we settled in, we heard Wyatt.  It wasn't a good sound.  It actually sounded like he was throwing up.

I was the first into the room with the boys and as I got down onto my knees to see their faces I realized that no, there was no puke.  Instead, Elliott had a look of terror in his face as his younger brother was screaming at him, chocking him around the neck.  Yes, apparently Wyatt had rolled over onto Elliott and even though he was asleep, Elliott hit or pushed Wyatt away and that woke Wyatt up, sent him over the edge, and he tried to injure his brother.

I was angry.

We got them separated and calmed down.  We lectured and whisper yelled.  They finally went back to sleep.  Ross went back to sleep and I eventually drifted into a drug induced coma.  At 5:30, Quinn woke up again (I think he was waking up to clue us in to his brothers), Ross fed him a bottle and just as he finished, threw him on the bed with me to run to break up the second air mattress brawl of the night.  Same thing - boys on top of each other - but this time, no choking.

Ross got smart and brought Wyatt into the room with us.

Quinn and I were on the bed.

Wyatt was on the crib mattress on the floor.

Ross was sleeping on the floor.

Elliott was in the other room, sunk into the middle of the coffin air mattress.

Not our best night as a family.

By the time we checked into our hotel again for our final night's stay, I wised up and had one boy under the sheet and one boy on top so technically.....

they weren't touching.