the supermoon

As part of our 10-year anniversary celebration, we decided to get take out dinner and relax together for a lovely, casual intimate dinner for two.  And then we learned that our decisions are not the only factor in determining the outcome of our evenings...

Our kids are generally great sleepers.  And fairly good self-soothers.  Sylvia sometimes takes 30 minutes to an hour to settle down, but she usually sings or babbles or plays with her stuffed animals and is generally pleasant about it.  And by usually, I mean, pretty much always.  Except when we decide to have a celebratory, romantic dinner, apparently.  We did our normal bedtime routine and called in the order to be picked up right when we anticipated putting the kids to bed.  Bath, teeth, books, songs, and into bed went the kids.  As we made our way for the door, Sylvia started crying hysterically.  Not just the crying that we've had in the past that lasted less than 5 minutes when we left the room, but the "someone cut off my finger" kind of crying.  Since she hasn't cried much lately, I just figured she's older and maybe has more gusto.  D went to get our food.  And Sylvia continued her full body sobbing, screaming, bawling, creating a giant puddle in her bed, mess.  I also figured that kind of crying would wear her out and she'd be asleep in no time.  I have a lot to learn.

Over the course of the next hour and a half (plus), Sylvia continued her hysteria.  We each made a couple trips up to check on her.  No dirty diaper.  No fever.  In fact, she stopped crying the second we touched her.  So, probably no ear infection or other pain, either.  As soon as we moved away, though, she started whimpering and if we got to the door, hysteria ensued.  We kept thinking that she's wear herself out.  We still have a lot to learn. 

D eventually had enough and went up to rescue her from whatever was torturing her.  He brought her downstairs to be with him for awhile.  Fortunately, Rafa was tired enough that he didn't get upset about being left behind.  When I went up to check on Sylvia he had the sweetest look of pleading concern on his face.  He seemed to be telling me to make it better so she would be okay.  Or, so he could sleep.  After Sylvia had been up hours past her bedtime, D decided to try again with bed.  She cried a little, but was probably tired enough at that point that she gave in to sleep.

Then we learned that there was a supermoon.  I still don't know what I think about the possibility that it is affecting her sleep.  On the one hand, the tides are influenced by the moon, and that's pretty powerful.  On the other hand, it just seems a little nutty that it could have such an effect.  But then there's this uncanny coincidence.  We don't have these nights very often, but it's coincided at least 3 times with the full moon.  I think this was the first time.

Although I was a little nervous about the adjustment and what that mean for their sleeping, the next night, we moved the twoddlers into their new room to make room for Baby 3.  And Sylvia went back to her old ways.  Just playing and singing in bed.  And discovering that she could reach the doorknob and open and close the door from standing in her crib.  She's now a little further away.  But that's 100x better than hysteria.