Hard.

Note the time of this post. Sigh. Yawn.

Jonathan went to sleep tonight at 7:15. He woke up at 10:15. Since Gabe and I were planning to go to bed, I decided it would be easiest to just nurse him back to sleep. So I did, he fell asleep, and we put him back in his crib. Ten minutes later, he woke up again. We let him cry for a bit, hoping he'd go back to sleep. Unfortunately, he's figured out how to get out of his swaddle, and instead of crying lying down, he stands up and yells over the edge of the crib. Not much chance of him going back to sleep that way.

So Gabe and I decided to try something I'd read about for use when night weaning. The idea is that Daddy goes to bed with the baby, so that he's not crying alone (more practically, so that he can't get himself out of his swaddle and stand up!) and Mom is in another room so she's not smelling of milk right next to his nose.

In theory, it's a really good idea. In practice, well, we have an incredibly stubborn son. He's not hungry (I nursed him at 10:30!) but he wants to nurse. And he's been wailing about it since 11pm.

This is so very hard to listen to. And neither Gabe nor I are getting any sleep. But at this point I think that we can't really just give up and nurse him. Because I'm pretty sure that he's old enough to figure out that if he just screams long enough, he'll get what he wants. And we certainly don't want that.

But I'm sitting here second guessing myself and worrying and being tired and wishing that he'd just give up and go to sleep. He's so tired.

He's not hungry. He's not hurting. His diaper is clean (we checked) and his Daddy is snuggling with him. He just can't use Mommy as a human pacifier.

I hope we're doing the right thing.