The Shove

It’s now been 11 days since we started trying to get Fred to sleep in his own bed and I think he has had enough. The first few days he screamed his head off for what felt like forever. Things seemed to be getting better every night; with the last few only taking him ten to fifteen minutes to pass out. As long as we have him in bed by 9:00, we can count on him not waking up till about 5:00 or 6:00 the next morning. When he does wake up, it’s for a quick bite and then lights out again. Usually if it’s somewhere around 5:00, I’ll just put him in the bed with us. After all, he needs to be rewarded for being a big boy and he sure loves to sleep next to Momma…maybe a little too much.

Something happened last night that makes me think he’s been lying in his crib formulating a plot. Sure it may have appeared like he was sleeping, but in reality his trusty sidekick Pooh has been helping him concoct a dubious ploy to get me out of the picture.

We went out to dinner with Pops last night and were kind of late getting back. This meant instead of getting him ready for bed at 8:00, we were way off and didn’t put him down till 10:00. Little did I know that this was the exact break Fred had been waiting on. Right off the bat he cried at 10:30, pretending to still be fighting another in his room alone. He awoke again at 11:30 wanting a bottle. He just lay there looking so adorable in his sleeper with the footies and the airplanes flying all over it. A couple of coos and we were like mashed pears in his tiny little hands.

He began crying at 4:00 a.m.. He was hungry, his schedule had been thrown off, he had not ate much before bed, it all made sense. He sucked the bottle down like it was compressed air and fell asleep before I even made it back to the bedroom. As I lay him down next to Lucy…so peaceful…he gently placed a hand on her check…I thought “Wow I’ve still got an hour and a half before the alarm goes off.”

I said goodnight, grabbed the blanket, and turned over so that my back was to him. Instantly like a sniper waiting on a rooftop next door, he shot an arm out knocking me off the bed. All his hard work making sure I was exhausted from being up and down though out the night. The planning, the scheming, it all came down to that one second when I was most vulnerable.

As I lay there face first on the hard wood floor, I thought that maybe I had somehow done this to myself. I rose up, peered over the side of the bed and what I saw finally put the whole night into full view....Fred with a huge smile on his face and fast asleep next to his mommy.