Turning Over a New Leaf

There's been a whole lotta crying over here lately. Our sweet Lil' Schmo used to sleep all night. It was beautiful. And then all sorts of evils started changing that, and stole our nights from us like a thieving bandit. Things like teething, constipation/tummy aches, hunger, growth spurts, and itchy eczema - and he started waking up again. That was 2 months ago. Some nights it's only once, other nights it's been up to 4 times. Four times. As if all I have to get done the next day is take recovery naps.

The last two nights have been pretty sleepless, which has brought me to this point. It is time.

I have a feeling that this weekend holds even more unnerving crying, but this'll be different because it'll have purpose instead of the meaningless crying and wakefulness all hours of the night that we've been enjoying. I'm calling it Operation Sleep All Night Weekend. I'm a tired mama right now. So tired. Tired of being awake at night. Tired of guessing what to do to make him happy. Tired of being frustrated. I'm tired.

With our other children we let them learn to go to sleep on their own, when we felt it was the right time for them, and us. The time has arrived... again, for this one. We have an extended weekend because the kids have half the week off of school next week, and we're attacking this beast head on. I've put it off for different reasons, but the biggest one is that Schmo shares a room with his big brother... the only child in the house who has to get up and go to real school during the day. I haven't wanted all the fussing and crying to steal his much-needed rest, too. The holiday will be a treat for him though, because he'll get to sleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed while his brother figures out how to go to sleep without his props, namely his Mama!

Turn and face it, dig deep. I'm psyching myself up because really, this is never easy. But in the past it has been SO worth it. I'm over being sleepless and mean.

It's so last year.