Crying it out

I am so tired.

To say that sleep has been rough lately is an understatement. Like saying Ben's feet are sort of stinky. Like saying Harry's inability to sit at the table for more than 3 seconds without demanding a chocolate popsicle is a wee bit annoying. Like saying I kind of like the coffee and caramel candy bars at Starbucks.

Jack does. not. sleep. And he does not sleep right freaking next to me all night long. He also does this thing where he wakes up at 4 and doesn't whine, knead, eat, and chew his way back to sleep until 5-ish, right around the time my alarm is reminding me to go to the gym.

The other night, he would not even go to sleep at 7:30 (his bedtime for the last 4 months and Harry's bedtime for the last 2 years), so we put him in the Pack n Play next to our bed and left him there.

He cried for an hour and 10 minutes before he went to sleep, and we sat downstairs feeling like assholes.

I think we felt especially bad because we let the nurse at our doctor's office make us feel bad about cosleeping, even though we like cosleeping, and we slept with Harry for a year, at which time he magically started sleeping all night in his own bed and has remained a champion sleeper. The nurse, who visits before the doctor comes in and clicks through a few computer screens of developmental milestones (and was wearing faded black socks with some high-heeled, pointy-toed black pleather mules), made a scrunchy face when she asked about sleeping arrangements, and we said he sleeps in our bed. Then she reminded us that cosleeping with older babies makes it really difficult for them to learn how to sleep on their own and get out of our beds. Which? Bullshit. We know that from experience. I always get totally pissy when people say that to me because it's just a stupid myth (or at least is not true for every baby), and it's usually spread by the anti-cosleeping crowd (not people who don't cosleep, but people who JUDGE PEOPLE WHO DO COSLEEP as if anyone should give a shit how anyone's else's baby sleeps). I thought these people were mostly on snarky message boards, but apparently they spread their snark in real life, too, sometimes under the guise of MEDICAL ADVICE. She said we could ask her for solutions when we were ready to fix that problem. (not the waking up as the problem, the cuddling with our tiny baby in our (AAP- and- Dr. Sears- safe) bed). It would be one thing if she voiced safety concerns (which have been disproven, but still have some sort of medical or baby's well being kind of thrust), but her discussion of cosleeping and later sleep issues was just crap. It's just a screwed up social custom that babies and children should" sleep apart from their parents, not some sort of natural law.

We blew it off at the time, but I think we both kind of thought about it and wished Jack slept elsewhere. Harry, you see, always started the night in his own bed and joined us at his first waking. Eventually, he stopped waking up, so he just spent the whole night in his crib. No crying. No elaborate night weaning process. No training. Jack sleeps in our bed from 7:30 on, guarded by bed rails and a monitor. If he wakes up before we're ready for bed, I have to go to bed right then or at least go to bed and feed him back to sleep-- and I usually just fall asleep then even if I didn't mean to, which is totally screwing with my skin care routine.

So I've started waking him up a little after he eats, telling him night night, and putting him down in the PnP. He only cried the first night, Last night, he rolled right over and went to sleep (like he does for naps). We decided that if he wakes up before 11, we will just "let" him cry. After 11, we're asleep anyway and will just bring him to our bed. I am not trying to eliminate night wakings or feeding right now. Just want a little space for a few hours.

Anybody have any tips for moving him from the PnP to the crib in Harry's room? We don't want to ruin Harry's sleep, but it would be cool to get J out of our room eventually. He's used to the crib because he takes his morning nap there, but he takes his afternoon nap in the PnP because Harry is asleep in his bedroom (thank g-d). Maybe start with naps? Keep in mind that I am napping from 1-3 as well, and I'd like to keep it that way. So, anyway, assvice?

Jack is so totally into peekaboo. It's pretty cute

He's also cutting 5 teeth right now, so we see this grumpy face a lot. Also, yes. We "let" him CIO while he's teething. Because we're assholes. Really tired assholes

Harry told the waitress he wanted a cheese hangaber (hamburger), fries, and a lemonade. We were kind of surprised, as he's never actually ordered his own meal, and he's only had milk at restaurants-- not even sure how he knew lemonade was an option. Then he ate it all.