My day so far

must begin with last night, when R awoke around 11 p.m. Andrew got out of bed, put him back to sleep (he thought), then put him back in his crib, where he wailed for a while, until I nudged Andrew back out of bed to put the boy in his swing, where he settled, cranked back up, and carried on wailing again until Andrew got up, put him back to sleep(for real this time), then came to bed himself around 12:40AM.

So the morning found me sleep-deprived but hopeful when my son awoke at 6 AM that I'd at least have a nap while G was at MDO. The kid had to be exhausted, right? Well, not exhausted enough. After a brief snooze in the car on the way home from dropping G off, he woke, had lunch, went back to sleep, and woke a disappointing twenty-four minutes later.

What's left of my sanity is packing up to go on holiday while the rest of me gets this situation under control. Here's what sleep-deprived, weepy, nerves-on-edge Q is committed to doing in order to try and get my non-naturally scheduled baby on a schedule that works for the whole family, not just his cute-and-always-ready-to-play self:

• * being consistent - I think this means letting him cry more than I have been, which won't be easy when he's keeping me awake at night. I'm willing to check on him once - if and only if he's cried for an abnormally long time and I really think something might be wrong - but it will be brief, wordless, and he will still have to put himself back to sleep.
• creating a schedule for him based on his *normal* routine: a morning nap around ten, to last about an hour, and an afternoon nap around one, to last at least two hours. I don't expect he'll nap the whole time, every time, especially at first, but I'll leave him alone in his crib anyway. What I'm learning about my kid is that he likes company, whether he's awake or asleep...
• solicit any and all relevant advice from friends who've been here before and now have little ones who sleep through the night
• pray
• ask for prayer

Don't think I'm knocking you if you've chosen to feed your child all night so you both can get rest. I've been there, and it doesn't amount to rest for me. Either I feed him at will to keep him semi-asleep through the night and awake exhausted the next morning, or I refuse feedings and attention he don't need at night and awake exhausted the next morning. I'm choosing the latter. And I'm asking you to pray with me. And share your own tales of woe (and ultimate triumph!) in the comments. I need to read them, and I'll probably have the time and the inclination to do so in the wee hours of tonight and tomorrow morning.