Black Friday

We are home after 5 days spent south of the border at my parents' place.

I packed up the kids (Graham had to stay home to work) & we left right from picking up Averie from school on Tuesday afternoon - had a brief stop at the outlet malls (bought the kids Christmas outfits... SOOO cute!) - making the 3 hour trip closer to 4 1/2 but my kids did great on the drive. I was NOT going to brave the "Day before US Thanksgiving" traffic... lesson learned last year ( the 3 hour trip was SEVEN hours!! In stop & go traffic for more than 60% of the drive! UGH!)

Only problem was Brynlea didn't have ANY real naps ALL day. We arrived at my parents around 7:30pm. And one VERY sleep deprived little girl went to bed in the play pen at Grandma's. Around midnight I learned something new as a parent... bad sleep deprivation (coupled with sleeping in a new place) in little ones can lead to night terrors...

I had learned about night terrors when studying for my Early Childhood Education. However, I had never experienced one. It scared me half to death! Brynlea woke up screaming... not crying, SCREAMING. Now I know that one is supposed to basically leave a child in a night terror to work it out on their own as they are not fully awake & the more you engage with them, the more agitated they can become.

This is very true. Trust me.

I was up until almost 4am with a baby so distraught that she threw up twice. I had not ever experienced not being able to console one of my children before! It was really upsetting! She finally fell asleep when I gave up & put her in her carseat (planning to take her for a drive) & she drifted off there.

If she had had a fever, I most likely would have taken her to emergency. She had NEVER behaved like that before - it was terrifying!

I only realized what had happened when she did it again the next night (this time she was sleeping WITH me in my bed & still woke up SCREAMING). I called Graham so he could hear it (you really cannot adequately describe what it is like) & while I was talking to him, she calmed down & fell back asleep on her own.

She just did it the 2 nights, but that was PLENTY. I will be a lot more careful about her getting sleep in the future!

Bedtime drama aside, it was fun to hang out with my family & of course... SHOP! I got a large chunk of our christmas shopping done, but there is still much to do.

I did a photo session yesterday... my sister & her boys, my other sister's maternity portraits (she's due in a couple weeks), my parents... and a few shots of my own kids to be used in our christmas letter & other fun stuff.

Busy, busy busy time of year... I LOVE IT!

Back to the regular grind tomorrow :)