Full Disclosure-my baby's not sleeping and I'm losing my mind!

Don't let that cuteness fool you-he's a sleep evading mastermind!

In the interest of full disclosure, and the fact that I can't abide bragging about a "perfect" baby, I'm telling anyone and everyone that my baby has decided sleep is for suckers.

Remember my post a couple weeks back where I extolled the virtues of the Baby Whisperer?? Well, I've been (mostly) following her guidelines with little baby numero quatro, aka Max, for the past 5 months since he's been born. And he's been a great sleeper since birth-going to bed for the night around 9, waking up once during the night to nurse, waking at about 5 when I would just capitulate and nurse him in bed until I woke up for the other bambinos about 3 hours later! I know full well that this 5 am nursing in bed till I feel like rolling out of bed because its easy stuff is going to get me into lots of trouble. I'm also starting to hit the wall I hit with each of my kids: this only getting a max of 4 consecutive hours of sleep stuff is growing old and I'm growing cranky. So I thought we'd start sleep training a little more attentively.

My goal was to encourage a little more sleeping before he would wake to nurse during the night in hopes that he would then sleep a little later than 5 which would then let me dial back the breakfast in bed. Now, I swear he knows what I'm doing and has now adjusted his schedule to wake every. 2. hours.

Not only every. 2. hours. but every. 2. hours. with screaming involved! Its very unlike him, and while I think some of it can be attributed to teething I can't help but think he's trying to foil my elaborate sleep training plans! So I've gone a couple nights now waking every. 2. hours. and not getting much sleep. What little mental equilibrium I had has now been shattered. I'm totally freaking out, crying, raging, swearing at all hours of the night because of no sleep. I can't believe I'm still freaking out, raging, etc. when this has been my least frustrating sleeper, and my fourth kid for crying out loud!?! Aren't mothers of lots of kids holy by this point??

So I know each of my kids has gone through a really crappy sleep stage, where I literally think I'm going to throw myself out of a window, and that with a little consistency and less freaking out on my part my baby gradually mellows and things get better. Its just the process that sucks. The Baby Whisperer has great tips, and I know they work, but getting there and implementing them sucks.

I've also come to the conclusion that there is no patron saint of getting your kids to sleep through the night, because no one has made it through unscathed and in a need of a confessor the next morning!