I always considered myself lucky for the cooperative sleeping baby that Jason and I were blessed with when we brought him home from the hospital. My expectations of the sleepless nights and zombie-like state I would exist in were much worse than the reality. Joshua began sleeping through the night pretty regularly at around 8 weeks. Fast forward to now...
Reality hits. The sleepless nights and zombie-like state are just as bad as I would have expected. Since 6 months, Joshua has decided to grace us with these up-all-night parties that I'm not cut out for. Ask any friends from college-- I'm a 9:00 to bed kind of girl, never liked the late night scene and I'm still not a big fan. As you can see from the title, today is another BIG COFFEE day after a terrible night with Joshua. Sadly, I've seen enough of these to realize that there's a pattern developing, and it usually coincides with the appearance of a new tooth or a big developmental milestone. So that's exciting-- I just wish he could wait until the sun comes up to alert us that something new is happening. But my child, with no patience, has to announce these things between 1 and 4 am it seems.
Last night it began around 1:00. The little monster is getting fast and crafty at waking up in the middle of the night- he's on to my tricks! I used to be able to high tail it to his room, replace a lost bink and he'd be back to sleep before he even knew he was awake. Now, by the time I hear the first stir, he's standing up with eyes wide open by the time I get there. And then it's going to be a process to go back to sleep. I try to rub his back to put him back to sleep, and at first he appears to cooperate. But he keeps peeking with one eye just to make sure I haven't left. And if I do- let the waterworks begin. Picking up and rocking is a last resort, because the laying back down becomes a major ordeal. But that's what it came to last night. Between 1 am and 4:30 am, I put that child back to sleep fully 6 different times. And 6 times, when I laid him down in his crib (still snoring mind you, so this is not a groggy child I'm laying down), those eyeballs popped open as if to say, "Nice try Mommy, but I'm not done with you yet."
At 4:30, he was finally down in his crib. My alarm rang for the first time at 5:00. I'm an early riser, but that was greeted with a reaction that I won't post, but it wasn't very nice. 6:00 wasn't much better, and I finally got into the shower at 7 to start the day. Of course, Joshua slept until 8 and then had the nerve to be perky when he woke up. It's a good thing I love him like I do...
Add to all of this drama the fact that I would not go downstairs last night under any circumstances for fear of greeting Mickey and Minnie who apparently have set up shop in our kitchen. So Jason was kind enough to go down to make a bottle for the baby throughout all of this awake time. In terms of reasoning for this fiasco, I saw two more top teeth very close to the surface of Joshua's gums this morning and I also fully expect that his walking will begin any day. So hopefully once he begins walking, his mind will settle enough at night to sleep. And if that's not true, it's at least the best hope I have to hang on to at this point.
Even in the wee hours of the morning, it's hard not to smile at this little guy. We call this his Jimmy Buffet shirt (thanks Darla & Jeremy & Sydney)!
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