Last night my children made a grown man cry...

The last few nights bedtime has been a nightmare, especially with Eli. He fights sleep which results in an overtired screaming baby for hours. This is important background information to understand the rest of the evening.

This year I'm participating in my school's production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer, where we preform monologues collected by Eve Ensler to raise money and awareness for v-day. (More about that later). Because I'm a participant I wanted Marcus to come and see me one of the nights of the performance so we asked Jason (my friend Delfin's husband) if he could sit with the babies on Friday so Marcus could go, and then Jason could go to the Saturday performance.  We hoped and prayed that we could get both babies into bed and sleeping before Jason arrived, but Eli was having none of it.

I left to get there early and Marcus stayed behind with Jason to make sure all was well. Since it was just Eli who was screaming Jason assured us he was okay and Marcus left. This is where things took a turn for the worse. Eli continued to scream and scream and scream. He was screaming so hard he was having a hard time breathing and was coughing. (Which just freaked Jason out because he didn't know if something was wrong). Jason tried feeding him, and then he tried changing Eli's diaper which in the process woke Emerson up.

So now Jason had two screaming babies. He tried holding them both at the same time, that didn't work. He tried putting Eli in the swing so he could get Emerson back to sleep and Eli literally flung himself out before Jason could get him buckled in. (Jason caught him). So that didn't work.

At one point Jason sent me a text message that said, "You need to call me now" (I think in the midst of his panic he forgot that I was preforming in a show and wasn't answering text messages. He needed to text Marcus). So I didn't even get that text until after the show was over.

Eventually, Jason decided to focus his energy first on getting Emerson back to sleep since that seemed like the easiest task. Eventually she did fall back asleep but as soon as he laid her down she starting screaming again. So he repeated previous efforts and eventually she went to sleep successfully in her crib. Which then left Jason to contend with the still screaming Eli.

At one point Eli did fall asleep in the swing but Jason decided to try and put Eli in the crib which just started the cycle over again. More screaming, more panic on Jason's part.

Finally, right before Marcus came home Eli fell asleep in the swing and Jason was exhausted, and reduced to tears.

Marcus and I both felt awful. I know how overwhelming two screaming babies can be (and I'm now somewhat used to it). I can't imagine being with someone else's children while they screamed for hours.

Poor, poor Jason. He assured me that all was okay and he would do it again because it was a good learning experience (God bless my friends). He also said he has a new appreciation for what we do, and why I usually try to have two baby-sitters for them whenever possible.

Jason also said that part of the panic was not knowing if something was seriously wrong with Eli. Marcus and I know that when Eli gets over tired he just can't handle himself and gets himself too worked up. Jason didn't know this and was afraid he was hurt or sick or something which just added to his panic.

Oh, children of mine.