Sleepless nights

Has anyone seen the movie Shrek 3 where they had triplets?  When they finally were back in their swamp and the kids were in bed Shrek said in a teasing voice "What will we do now?".  The next scene shows Shrek and Fiona passed out on the bed!  This is pretty close to how we are feeling at the moment.

For the past three nights or so we have been struggling to get Kiddy#1 to go to sleep.  I have tried staying in the room until she falls asleep.  It works, but it takes very long and I get nothing else done.  I've said to her she will have to sleep in the lounge if she keeps calling me all evening because she wakes her sister up.  This doesn't help either.  Last night, around 10:30pm she was still refusing to sleep and cried every time I left the room.  By that time I did have to move her to the lounge because Kiddy#2 was starting to wake up.

Eventually she fell asleep on the one couch while I was wide awake on the other one.  This morning at 6am she was wide awake again and woke her sister up.  I'm exhausted.

I don't want this behavior to become a habit, but how do we prevent it?

Her shenanigans last night caused a lot of unnecessary stress and tension in the house.  I tried to convince hubby, or maybe myself that it is just a phase and it too shall pass.  Neither of us were convinced...

I am honestly beginning to think that "me time" is just a myth.  Never mind "couples-time" or date nights or whatever other time you are supposed to fit into your day.

Of course guilt steps in every time I wish I had a few minutes to myself just to relax.  I love my girls and love spending as much time with them as possible, but I very often wish there was a family member nearby whom I could call at a moments notice to just babysit them for an hour or so!  I especially feel guilty thinking this way because I'm working full day and don't see them during the day.  Sometimes I just think that there would have been a lot less arguments if we could every now and then ask someone to entertain them for a little while!

Bring on the weekend!