Sleep Woes Still Happen Sometimes:

Last night was just weird. A fluke. Noah woke crying at 3:45am, and normally I let him just get it out of his system and two minutes (or less) later, he is back asleep. But this time he sounded more alert and fussy... And the morning before he had soaked out a corner of his diaper, so my groggy brain decided I needed to check if he was wet and soggy and therefore miserable...

In hindsight, I guess I needed to do what we always do-- just wait and let him go back down. But earlier I had made the colossal triple-level mistake of a.) napping later b.) drinking 2.5 Mountain Dews with our dinner out c.) therefore staying up until 2:15 am. So I was NOT really rational at 3:45 am. So I went in. And he was NOT wet. (outside his diaper). But my "intervention" made him more alert, and for some crazy reason, even though we were able to put him back to sleep easily ALL the TIME during our trip, he was simply NOT settling last night. I gave it 20 minutes, held him to drowsy, laid him down, he fussed, I patted him in his crib til he was nearly asleep, then tried to leave and he snapped back awake and WAILED. I was so DONE by then, SO tired, so I gave it over to Joe. He worked from 4:00 am until 4:45. I am NOT kidding. He said that Noah never fell asleep during that time, even though he finally settled into comfortable rocking silence.

I, of course, never slept during that 45 minutes. and I finally had to just go intervene. I was NOT sleeping. so I went in. We turned off the CD, turned ON the light, and talked to him for a while. Kept him in my lap so he wouldn't get down and play. Then we redid most of his bedtime routine, minus the bath. He was mad when daddy left the room, but I plied him with books and he settled. We said his prayers (again), and sang songs (again), and I went to lay him down and he freaked... But this time, I just persistently said my goodbyes and my hushed nightly reassurances and left the room. He was FREAKING out. It was now 5:00 am.

Joe and I decided to let him just CIO. He wasn't going to go to sleep any other way, and he was exhausted. I went and slept on the couch because Joe knew I didn't sleep until Noah slept... and maybe this way I would be able to tune it out a bit more. Surprisingly (or maybe not??), Noah was done sobbing at 5:13. ??! HARD HARD crying, then... NOTHING. (Kinda like Labrynth, when the baby gets kidnapped by trolls... right? But even if Noah HAD been kidnapped by trolls, I was too tired to care at that point. Bad mama!!)

And there ya have it. Noah woke at 8:17, so he slept in a bit. Joe took over from 8:17-10:00 and let me sleep in, and then we traded and he napped from 10-11:30. Noah has been a peach all morning. Hmph.