Rule #17: Mom's a pushover

Last night was one of the worst sleeping nights Evan has ever had. Since his birth I've marveled at how well he sleeps at night. I've even gotten yelled at by a resident who was jealous that my four month old sleeps through the night (and has for several months) and his one year old just started to. I know that I have been lucky. That said...last night was awful.

We were going through our regular routine, Evan ate, then we rocked and cuddled for a minute or two, and I put him to bed.

Tears, screaming...I gave him his binks back (whish usually does the trick)....more tears, more crying. I walked away, trying to help him learn to calm himself and sleep. Afterall, he's never had a problem before. he cried for a solid 40 mintues! I was practically in tears myself! I couldn't stand to hear him so sad and upset. So I went in and snuggled him, he got droopy eyes and I laid him down.

tears and more tears! I tried to listen to Alex, "all his needs are met, he just wants to be held...and we don't want to teach him that we will hold him all night long..." I know that this makes sense...I do. But I just wanted to hold my son! In my head I was thinking, I can hold him tonight until he falls alseep, a real deep sleep so that he won't wake up when I move him....it will only be for tonight. But I know that I wouldn't be just one night. So, we get him out of bed and bring him unto the living room. We were decorating our Christmas tree. He was no longer tried having cried for an hour. So he laughed as I danced to Christmas music and placed onarments on the tree. He loves our tree and is fasinated by the lights. It's so cute.

After being up for another hour, we fed him again...you know, to top him off so he wouldn't wake up in the night, plus it had been three hours since he last ate. And we tried again to put him to sleep. He cried for another 20 minutes. I have no idea what was going on. He didn't fall asleep until 12:15 AM!!! He normally goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30!!

I've decided that he knows that I am a pushover. And when I am home there's a good chance if he cries longer than 10 minutes, I'm there, in his nursery "helping" him go back to sleep. You might think I'm being silly, but listen to this. I'm at work tonight. Guess who fell right asleep without any fuss?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled he had a typical night and didn't give his father any difficulty. But if it happens again the next night I'm home, then I'll know that it's me...and he just knows I'm a pushover. I guess I'll have to work on that for the future.