Sleeping Through the Night, 2.0

To all my peeps out there who have had babies who cry, and cry, and cry all through the night. To everyone I know who has had kids with day/night confusion. For all my pals who have had kids who don't go more then a 2 hour stretch for months on end. My hats off to you. Seriously. I don't know how you do it. I still don't. I think you just make it through-and you don't really question it. Yet, I am here to say, "You are the most amazing people on earth." Yes, parenting is a 24 hour job, and you are always responsible for your children, no matter what-but honestly, we all need a break from each other, even if it is to stare at our eye lids, and no one but our neurons will benefit from the break.

You childless readers here, people do this sleepless night thing for months on end. Some do it for years. It is fatigue like you can't imagine. A friend of mine was commiserating with me that this must be like what insomnia is like. It isn't. I have had insomnia, so I can compare. The feeling of sleeplessness is the same. The big difference is that YOU WANT TO SLEEP. YOU CAN SLEEP. A little tiny person you love more than anything else in the world (other than other tiny people, and your true love) is the one thing between you and mind numbing sleep. Not only can fatigue begin to get the better of you, but you become less of a personable person. You are not the party animal you once were-sleeping by 7:00, only to be awakened by 9:00. And, if you are anything like me, you begin sleep walking. This has been less fun for the others in our household.

All this preamble, Nolen has started sleeping through the night. Not every night, but it is getting better and better. He is gaining the skill of putting himself to sleep, and I am beginning to remember what sleeping for more then 3 hours feels like.

And, to those of you out there who have never experienced this before (because we had not until we had Nolen!) This-my friend-this is actually a short period of time to be living with a baby who doesn't sleep. Many->most people I know live through this for a very long time. Who knows...I could be posting another post in a few days or weeks telling you he is off the wagon. Let's hope not.

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NOTE: last night Nolen woke up and was awake on and off for approximately 90 minutes on and off. However, this time, he wasn't screaming. Kind of a nice change!