Single Parent

I have been a single Mom this week while my husband is off playing working at The Great Portable Sawmill Shootout taking place at the Paul Bunyan Show in Cambridge, OH. I have a great fantasy that this is a weekend of hunky men carrying heavy lumber while wearing partially unbuttoned flannel shirts.

Then I remember I watched JR pack his bag.

There was no flannel involved.

From the pictures I've seen, I have come to realize that this event is a large gathering of men who have an obsession with lumber and really big machines that make really big piles of sawdust. I'm sure conversations about how a sawmill can be modified for more power are common, followed by grunting. Tim Taylor would be proud.

I can almost hear the conversations happening around the mills in my mind....

"Oh man, did you see that Woodmizer sink it's blade into the oak? It was beautiful. Like a hot knife sliding through butter..."

"Now that right there is a beautiful piece of lumber. I can't even find a knot in it."

Yawn.

I'll go back to my visions of flannel.

So while J.R. has been off playing Lumberjack, a favorite hobby of his, I've been running the house. Kind of.

I determined that it was past time for Brody to learn how to sleep in his crib, on his own, for a whole night. He got into this nasty habit of having to sleep with us in our bed right about the time I snapped my wrist in half in Colorado this spring. (Sidenote - if you can't chew gum and walk at the same time, you probably shouldn't snowboard. I tried explaining this to J.R., but he dragged me up the mountain anyway. )

Every night around 3 am Brody wakes up screaming. It's not nightmares. It's not because he's hungry. It's not because he wants a dry diaper. He just simply wants to take up an entire queen sized bed and torture his parents.

After all sorts of reading online I've determined the best way to teach Brody that he needs to sleep in his own bed is to let him scream it out.

I'm not a huge fan of letting my kid scream himself to sleep, but I want my bed back. Also, I can't believe I'm going to admit this, I kinda like snuggling with my husband at night. Having Brody laying horizontally across the bed with his head on my chest and his feet in J.R.'s face - it interrupts that whole snuggling business.

So being the completely awesome wife I am, I decided this was a great week to start teaching Brody how to sleep on his own because J.R. would be gone and instead of BOTH of us getting no sleep, just one of us would be getting no sleep. I think this act of selflessness deserves a present from Tiffany & Co.

The first night I put Brody to bed at 8:30 - a huge improvement from his normal 10 pm bedtime. Ten minutes of fussing and lights out. He slept until 7:45 the next morning.

I awoke one overly proud parent. All night! He slept ALL NIGHT! All I needed to do was put him to sleep earlier and keep his sleep area dark and quiet. Easy peasy.

The next night we followed the same bedtime routine. Lights out by 8:25. Life is good.

Then 2 am came, and so did the screaming. I went to Brody, gave him a kiss on the forehead, laid him back down, told him that I loved him and quietly explained that night time is very boring and we need to sleep. In our own bed.

Repeat at 2:30.

Repeat at 3.

Repeat at 3:30.

Repeat at 4.

At 4:30 I break down and give Brody a small bottle. I rubbed his back until he FINALLY went to sleep.

I went back to sleep on the couch but kept having nightmares that I died on the couch while J.R. was away and that Brody was trapped in his crib, screaming and hungry, for 2 days until somebody found us. Twisted. This is why you don't let your son scream himself to sleep. Feelings of guilt screw with your mind.

I was a zombie the next day, but we survived.

Last night was almost a success. He started waking up around 5 am and with a little encouragement from me, he stayed in his crib until 6:30 when he decided we should wake up and watch the sun rise. No biggie, it was a beautiful morning and I got some pretty fantastic snuggles out of it.

Tonight he was in bed by 8. He's really getting the hang of our new bed time routine and didn't even fuss when I put him in his crib. I'm crossing my fingers that we make it through the night with no interruptions.

On top of very little sleep, I have still been trying to keep up with all of the other responsibilities I have. My kitchen is clean. Kind of. My floors are clean. Kind of. And the laundry is done. Kind of.

While my house might not be in the best shape ever, at least I managed to complete all of my homework and get it turned in.

I'm pretty proud of how well Brody and I did this week on our own. It's not easy being responsible for a very busy one year old 24 hours a day, especially when you don't get a lot of sleep and have a lot of other responsibilities that demand your attention as well. It will be nice to have J.R. home tomorrow afternoon to help with Brody so that I can have a break from multitasking.

As for tonight, I'm praying for a little bit of sleep so I can be rested for the return of my favorite Lumberjack tomorrow.