Almost there...

It is always funny to me how impatient I get at the end of my pregnancies.They always seem to go so fast, until I am about 3 weeks away form my due date, and then it feels like everyday is an eternity! I am currently 38 weeks, so with 2 weeks left, you'd think I would be excited and anticipating, but instead, I feel run down, exhausted, and super anxious. I am very excited to meet my new little baby, and to finally get a chance to see her face and hold her little body. I am also quite tired of being pregnant at this point, and I am very much looking forward to being able to recover and have more energy and motivation to play and spend time with my kids and husband!
The last few months have felt very long, with the kids having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. We introduced "the big-kid bed" and every night when our usually 30 minute bed time routine was turning into 2 hours, I would be furious with myself for coming up with the "grand" idea in the first place! After trying to lay down with the kids until they fell asleep, which never took less than 2 hours, AKA two complete rotations of their lullaby CD, putting up a gate, which Dominic impressively knocked over, and finally installing a lock, which did not deter the kids one bit from making their entire room one big play pen until 10 or 11 at night, we had totaled about 3 solid weeks of very little night time sleep (for any of us), and just about no nap time whatsoever, except when I would drive the kids in the car until they fell asleep. We finally decided to seek the help of others. Our pediatrician recommended putting Stella back in a crib since she is still rather young for a bed. We borrowed a spare pack and play from Peter's sister and used it as a punishment if Dominic were to get out of bed without a good reason once the bed time routine was over. He hated going in the crib, so he quickly began to get the idea.
At first, I was very against the idea of the gate, the lock, and the crib/punishment because I was worried about the kids' feelings in all of this. While I certainly believe that their feelings are extremely important, I also realized that the poor things were suffering from lack of sleep. They were not themselves on a daily basis. They were extremely irritable, and overly exhausted! I could see clearly that they wanted and needed Peter and I to intervene in a drastic way, in order to get them the sleep they needed.
I occasionally like to read parenting books, however, I have not found one that I completely agree with. Some are too firm while others are much too relaxed. Peter and I were trying to evaluate our parenting style and feeling a little confused about how to go about certain things, when we began to realize that God has given us a very good clue about how to relate to our children. He certainly doesn't give us a step by step guide, but if we look at the way He relates to us, we can draw a lot of beautiful conclusions about parenting. God is unconditional love! Although we are limited beings, we as parents are called to love our children unconditionally. This seems pretty obvious. Anyone would agree. But I think that sometimes, we can become confused about what this means exactly. I believe that unconditional love requires me as a mother to always be there for my children and have open arms to them. It means sacrifice. It means being able to give punishments in order to teach my children important lessons. It means always putting their needs first, and trying to discern what is best for them.