Nightime troubles

This is the tale of a young baby's quest
to push his mother to the edge of sanity
between the hours of Midnight and 6 am.

I went to bed last night at 7:15 pm. Yeah, you read that right, seven freakin' fifteen. I haven't gone to bed that early since I was in the third grade. Why was I in bed at such an early hour? Because Mr. Innocent up there kept me up ALL NIGHT on Monday night. Literally, my eyes finally closed at 5 am and I slept for all of two hours. Two freakin' hours people! So last night I hit the hay early to get a leg up on some sleep. Thank God because my little sugar booger is on a quest to slowly drive me insane with sleep deprivation. In his defense...he is cutting 3 teeth as we speak. Needless to say, he's just not too happy these days.

I don't do well when I don't get enough rest. I cry like a baby and get tummy aches and yell at my older son for stupid stuff like, uh, breathing. I'm at my worst at 4 am. Let me tell you about my night.

7:15-I put on my Lavender eye pillow. stretch out into bed, and fall peacefully asleep.

11:00 pm-whew...I just got almost 4 hours of sleep in a row. Yay me! Grab baby, nurse baby, change baby's diaper, place him lovingly back in the crib. Sigh a huge sigh that he went back down easy. Go back to sleep.

1:00 am- Wake up to crying baby. Swoop him up, give him pacifier, walk around room going "ssshhhh" in his ear lovingly while I give him a little jiggle. He falls back asleep and goes in crib pretty easy. Yay me!

3:30 am-Why is my baby awake again? Nurse him, change diaper, curse the heavens because his eyes are wide open and he is singing "la la la goo ga." If he is going to be awake and happy he can do it in the crib. Place baby back in crib awake. Step away slowly and listen to his sweet song for half an hour.

4:00 am-Koen is screaming in his crib. So much for a happy baby. Swaddle, give Tylenol, give Mylecon (One of these medicines has got to cure whatever is ailing him right?), rock him to what looks like a peaceful slumber.

4:10 am-slowly put baby back in crib, his eyes pop open right away, he is crying.

4:30 am-As I rock in him the glider I start to cry too. This scares him and he cries louder, which makes me cry louder. We both sob and hold onto each other.

5:00 am- I begin to doubt my own parenting skills. I ask myself questions like...why can't I be one of those moms that can let the baby cry it out? Was it a mistake to start rocking him to sleep when he had that cold and needed some extra love? Have I ruined my baby? Is this my fate for the rest of his babyhood? These thoughts go in a loop as I try every possible method to sooth my now hysterical baby.

6:00 am- He is finally asleep in the crib and seems peaceful. I crawl back into bed and try my hardest to fall back asleep but I am fuming at the fact that I was just up three and a half hours with my baby. I drift off to sleep only to be awakened by the alarm at 7 am. Time for our lovely day to start.

By about 3 pm I look like this...