Sleep. There's nothing like it.

Sleep is a wonderful thing. I didn't know how much I truely enjoyed being able to sleep until I had Crimson. After I had Simeon I did what every mother is told to to do survive. I slept when he slept. Sure, I slept at weird times, but I slept. With Crimson I was introduced to the wonders of coffee. I always thought it was too bitter, but with enough cream and sugar it become my elixir to survive the first few months. I'm going through this again. Sleeping when Eliana sleeps is not an option. Well, I guess it is. I can take a nap when she does because that's when Crimson takes one and sometimes Simeon. But, I look at this time as an opportunity to get things done uninterrupted.
I'm sitting here today exhausted, wanting a nap, but more importantly wanting ideas on how to get Eliana to sleep through the night. See, my thing is that I want to get up with Jarrod when he leaves for work. I want to make him breakfast, iron his shirt, hand him his lunch, and send him off with wishes for a good day. But, I also want to be able to spend some quiet time with him after the kids go to bed. This means that I stay up too late. Add to that the fact that Eliana will wake up anywhere from one time to four times during the night wanting to eat. Then I get up, or just woken up, when it's time for Jarrod to get up. It might take me just a couple of minutes to go back to sleep after he leaves, or 30 minutes. Then Eliana wakes up about an hour or two before Simeon and Crimson and wants to start her day. I try to doze while she plays on the bed next to me, but let's face it. That's wishful thinking.
I have Eliana on a schedule where she will get rice cereal, or oatmeal, for breakfast and some kind of vegetable for dinner. This is along with her nursing whenever she's hungry. I don't know if I should add lunch in with that or what.
So, I'm looking for answers on how to get a better night's sleep when I should be taking a nap. And if none of this makes sense then it's because I'm tired and should be taking a nap.
Yesterday I was tired. Friday night we went all the way to Stockton (an hour's drive for those that don't know) to have dinner with friends. Then we drive all the way back home. Meanwhile we have a birthday party to plan for Crimson, shopping that needs to be done, butterfly wings that need to be made, cakes that need to be made. But, we are, instead, piddling around and eating with "friends". That stressed me out. So, we get home (it was almost midnight, I'm sure) and I get started on the wings and the cakes. I finally decided to go to bed and start again in the morning. But, I'm so tired that instead of getting up at 6 I get up at almost 8. Around 10 we have to hurry and go because there are a few last minute things to get at the store and I ran out of supplies for the butterfly wings. Did I mention that the party started at 2? We get to my in-law's house around 11:30. I had butterfly wings to finish, a cake to put frosting on, a house to clean up, good bags to fill, and food to start cooking. Two and a half hours were barely enough time to do all this. We stay there until around 9 that night. My sister-in-law was having a karaoke party. I tried to stay, but I was tired and still had to get ready for church the next morning. We get home and I don't even give the kids a bath. They were tired too. I got up at 6 to get everyone ready for church. We got out of church a little later than usual (but it was a totally awesome service!) and lunch took longer than usual. So by the time we got back home we had roughly an hour for a nap. It's better than nothing. We had a meeting at the pastor's house. We ended up staying longer than we expected. We got home around 10:30, but I didn't go to bed until almost 12. I woke up with Jarrod, but couldn't drag myself out of bed. When we did start our day I had to fight with Crimson to make her bed. All she had to do was pull the sheet and blanket up and put her pillow on her bed. I wish my bed was that easy to make. So I said all that to say that I was really tired yesterday and sleep deprived. I was depressed. I went through this after having Crimson, but it was worse with her. I had a thought that sleep deprivation could be linked to depression and post partum depression. I looked it up, but didn't have much time to read about it. When I get depressed like that I like to clean. So, I rearranged the living room yesterday. It's something I've been wanting to do so I did it. And now I want to throw all of the kids' toys away and just give them sticks to play with. Because, their toys are all over the living room again. But, they would hurt each other with sticks.
Wow, this is a long, babbling post. Can you tell I'm tired? I'm going to go take a nap now. Hopefully I still have time.