Sugar cookies with tea and clementines is a perfectly acceptable lunch if it is December or if you were up a lot with a regressing toddler. Meaning, I double earned that deliciousness.
Yep, obviously the sleep fairy has rescinded her blessing upon our house and we're once again finding ourselves in the throes of one of the least pleasant tasks associated with parenting a healthy child: sleep training. Not just regular sleep training either, but middle-of-the-night sleep training. We had it so good for awhile, we finally got it so HR would go to sleep and stay asleep for a reasonable amount of time. And it came and went but mostly stayed that way. I could count on him staying in his crib until at least 4 a.m. for a good six month period. I was at peace with the notion that my boy would never be a great sleeper, but hey, good enough. And then this thing happened where he was up earlier and earlier and we got tireder and tireder and just took him into bed with us, which, as it turns out, he loves. So now when I try to resist bringing the monkey child from his bed to ours when he's having a screaming fit in the early a.m. darkness, it's a THING. And I don't want that, I think it's for the best for us all to put a stop to it. Last night's initial attempt was semi-successful-- I got him to put himself back down at the 1:00 wake up within (the longest ever) 45 minutes, then gave in and brought him in bed when he woke again at 3:30. I know I need to be tougher than that if I want it to really work. The problem is, my resolve weakens considerably as morning approaches. I've decided I'm giving myself this week to take a decent shot at breaking us all of the bed sharing habit. If it doesn't work, then we'll co-sleep until he's 15. I don't care, at least we all sleep pretty well.
It's so frustrating because I really thought we were done with this, and we got used to being able to count on a certain type of behavior from HR. A taste of honey and all that. Anyway, I had better get going and capitalize on the energy I built up on this morning's surprisingly cleansing run before the lack of shut-eye comes back around with the clampdown.
I don't like many holiday songs that were written after the 1980s, but this is one of those exceptions. It's long and it's a sad bastard to be sure, but the holidays are for the melancholy, too.
Our little guy still comes into our bed around 3 am, too. Once I stopped feeling like a pushover, it came to be one of my favorite times of the day. Now that Jack is such a busy guy, it is one of our only chances to snuggle. And I actually miss it on the days he sleeps all night in his bed. We are all well rested now, and I know there will come a day when I will long for those cuddly mornings. So - may you be stronger than I was, may HR be less stubborn than Jack was, but ultimately may you all get enough sleep, however it happens. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteChristy, you will never know how much this helps and how much better it makes me feel! Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family.
ReplyDeleteI hope it does make you feel better! I fought it for a long time and felt really guilty whenever I caved in and let him sleep with us. After lots of reading, (and a few months of good sleep), realized that a happy, well rested family is the most important thing, so whatever works to get you there. Merry Christmas to you and yours!!
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