Oh dear...not a fun day at ALL! Today was the day I was warned about...the day when a mom just wants to leave the house screaming. I didn't, but I wanted to.  It seems my children are back on the anti-sleep train. I have no idea what happened. We were all doing so well for the longest time. I've been working from home until the new year since the office is so quiet. I was so looking forward to being home with my little munchkins, so we can catch up and spend some quality time. It is like they are totally different children! And not in that sweet nostalgic way like they are growing up so fast. Schedule? What schedule? Naps? HA! They laugh at my so-called "naps". For the past three days, my children REFUSED to sleep! After a rough day one, I thought maybe they were just acting out because they were not used to me being home. Then day two came. I got Peanut down and convinced him to stay down (mostly me repeatedly putting him down without playing)  and he proceeded to talk for 2 hours!!! For both naps! Pumpkin was back to her fifteen minute nap routine and joined him in the babble.

I know some of you are thinking, "Well, maybe they aren't tired." I assure you they are exhausted. Yawning, rubbing eyes, eyelids half shut. But the biggest sign is the whining and crying. Peanut just cries and howls at just about anything when he is tired. He wants to be picked up, but he wants to play on the floor. He wants to be in his walker, he wants me to hold him. He is hungry, he doesn't want to eat. He wants his sippy cup, but "WAAAAAAAH!!! Get that milk away from me!"  On and on, all day. Pumpkin shows her exhausted by suddenly needing to move everything at once. Eyes wild open like a wild woman, she thrashes and kicks and waves her arms and shakes her head. She suddenly can't see to play like usual, she just grabs and growls. Yes, she growls. She is not as much of a whiner, just growls and shouts. Imagine if you didn't sleep for three days straight. You would be delirious, right? Saying silly things, bad coordination, just feeling goofy. That is Pumpkin when she is tired.

So today, day three of the siege...I finally, finally convinced Peanut to sleep by continually checking and putting him down until he started to scream in protest. During this time, Pumpkin woke up from her brief nap (fifteen minutes) and was ready to play. Put her down and then she started to wail in protest. I finally walked out of the room when it was clear my consoling was coming across as time to play to both of them. It took them almost an hour to finally sleep! WHA'? They used to just fall asleep after a book and a cuddle and down in the crib. I did get them to do a modified afternoon nap by running errands and having them sleep in the car. (Hey, at least it was something!) We had dinner and Peanut pretty much whined and cried through most of it. Then I had the idea of putting him in the sling again. We went through regular bedtime ritual (bath, lotion, jammies, book) and instead of the rocking/cuddle I put him on my back instead so he could be close while I got his sister ready for bed. BAD IDEA!  At first he liked it and smiled and got sleepy eyes. Then the screaming started. I thought I would lose my hearing (and I play percussion, so that is a stretch!) That on top of Pumpkin being so keyed up that she kept trying to jump out of the tub, I decided to cut her bath short. I got Peanut readjusted to our normal hip position and he continued to cry. I was so freaked out that I took him down. He immediately started to laugh and started to crawl frantically. He wasn't hurting, he wanted to play!  Pumpkin was howling as I was putting lotion on her and trying to get her jammies on.

You get the idea...I finally laid them down and left the room. They did not finally sleep for another hour. I could hear them babbling to each other in the dark. They both usually sleep through the night, but they have both woken up twice whining already.

I was so upset, I cried a little. (I don't love admitting that, but hopefully I can give some other new mom something to related to!) I've been so proud of helping my children get on a sleep schedule. It took so long and they have been way happier knowing what was going to happen when. It is like none of that ever happened. I just felt so frustrated and confused. To make it worse, I vented to my DH and he just gave me reasons why I shouldn't let it bother me...which just made me feel like I had no right to be frustrated in the first place. (Note: This is a fairly typical male-female interaction. Man wants to fix things and woman wants to be listened to.)

At this point, I am trying to figure out what is causing all of this. My theories are:
A: Teething. They are coming in fast. Poor Peanut has at least two more trying to poke through and he has four in already. 
B: Development. Pumpkin will be taking her first step any day. She can balance on her own for thirty seconds or so.
Cifferent routines. I'm not sure if our nanny is doing something different for the bed time routines. She says they nap well and eat well during the day, but I would really have no idea since they are in bed by the time I get home.
D:Incompetence. Perhaps I have become totally inept as a mother.

Ok, I don't really think D) but when I was sitting there boo-hooing, it seemed plausible. Anyway, I am calm and ready to tackle this. I have a few days to get everyone back in the swing of things. Our nanny is coming in tomorrow so I can run some errands by myself (I have not finished Christmas shopping and I have no groceries) so I will talk with her and have her write some things down. I'm going to do a lot more baby wearing, especially of Peanut, but Pumpkin as well when we get closer to sleep time. And I guess we'll just have to go back to the beginning.

Any tips from my loyal readers? Or just some good words of encouragement? Are they normal or is there something sinister going on here?