Wait A Sec, Is It 2008 again?

Josiah has always been persistent. He has a will made of steel and one day he will hopefully use this perseverance to win ultramarathon titles or graduate summa cum laude from medical school. We first noticed his reluctance to give up around 6 months old when he began to scream all night. And by all night I mean he went to bed at 7:30pm, was up by 10pm and screamed until 5am when he finally got up for the day. Also, he didn't take naps. And I know this seems unbelievable, really I do, because even my pediatrician told me he had never heard of such a thing. "So, he just doesn't sleep? No cat napping in the car?" he would ask incredulously. "Never." I would reply. "Ok, I'll get him sleeping," he tells me to "go buy Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. Read the whole thing, then do exactly as he says." He says that it takes most kids around 3 days to sleep through the night, some a week. Ok, so what he was saying is that my kid will be sleeping in 3 days or at worst a week? For real? I wondered into Barnes~n~ Nobel in a zombie state and immediately bought the book. Thus began Josiah's first will and testament to persistence... he screamed all night, every night, for a month. He banged his head on the side of his crib and 100% FREAKED out. I know to a Sears mama this may sound like the cruelest, craziest thing you have ever heard but we were desperate and delirious. Did I mention I was pregnant? It was hands down one of the hardest times of my life. Things just don't make sense when you aren't sleeping. And then magically, one day, he stopped crying. It was a miracle and an even bigger miracle when baby number two began sleeping through the night on his own accord at just 3 months old. No crying it out required. We payed our dues as parents and finally were able to enjoy putting both kids to bed and having 12 uninterrupted hours to ourselves . Ah, normalcy.

Enter 3 months ago. Josiah no longer sleeps through the night and has been settling with a one hour nap that usually requires some sort of bribe to get him to even lay down. "If you take a nap I'll give you a cookie when you get up." I tell him. You can see the his two year old brain pondering such a request. "What kind of cookie?" He asks. "Whatever you want, we'll take you out for a cookie. Just please, please take a nap." I beg. "Ok, fine. Night, night". 1 hour later from Josiah's room: "I NEEEEED Cooookie!" And having been on the side of no naps I will deal with this one hour nap and try not to complain too much but seriously this nighttime madness has me wanting to yell out a great big WTF??? I thought we were done with this! I need help. I despise not sleeping. I honestly don't know what to do. He is too old to cry it out and is seriously scared so I can't just ignore him. However, his 3am requests border on annoying. Josiah: "Mommy I see something." Me: "What?" Josiah: "Take something out of here." Me: "What?" Josiah: "I don't know just something." I grab a book and walk out. He is quite. 3 hours later, Josiah: "MOMMMMMY!" Me: 'What is it" Josiah: "I need some ki ki (ice)" Me: "Ok, but this is it, ok?" Josiah "Ok." I get him the Ki Ki. And so on and so on... and then I can never fall back asleep and lay there thinking about how I am never having a baby again and never dealing this no sleeping nonsense again and praying that Oliver doesn't suddenly start not sleeping and then just as I fall asleep, "MommmmmY! Yeah, you get it.

When does it end? At least this way he is denying me sleep as a sweet, scared little boy. 15 years from now he will be keeping me awake with worry. I guess as a parent you have to give a lot and take a lot. Because it is all worth it, right? Right? (Deep yoga breath, ommmmm).