My oldest, after 2 years of never sleeping is now a rock.  That is he doesn’t like going to sleep, but once he does he is out for the count.  He used to wake at all hours of the night and rise with the sun.  Now he sleeps well longer the rest of us, and sounder too.  I envy him.

My youngest, at 7 months, is even worse.  He hates sleep.  He wakes throughout the night, often, and rises too early.  He doesn’t want to sleep and he doesn’t want us to either. 

I get what you are saying about making the most of each situation, already I romanticize the nights with boy 1, but living in the now is hard. Each time I wake to my son battling sleep, I too must battle, against my own frustration and fatigue.  I’ve whispered some things, albeit it in sing-song tones, in the middle of the night that I am not proud of.

Hopefuly this too will pass.  I’m tired.

I can relate to Whit in that it is not a wonderful feeling to wake up and assist our kids in the middle of the night.  This is part of the grind though, but for now, I am so thankful that my wife is waking up to feed our second son as he is still waking up in the middle of the night.  And in all honesty, I am really hoping that I do not have to get up with him because I’m a big fan of sleep and the daytime and I’ll go way out of my way then. 

With all this being said though, it does feel good though to bring help to my boys, whether that is a sip of apple juice, calming down after a nightmare maybe, or just meeting their needs at night.  The only thing that doesn’t feel good is having to wake up.

My wife gets up most of the time if there is something. I have to say we are very lucky as both kids sleep through the night with the usual exceptions when there is a nightmare or something.

I sang and danced with my daughter until she was 2 to get her to sleep.  Well my boy (now 1) doesn’t want to be danced with or sang to. Drop me in my bed and let me sleep!  He likes to jump on one another and play push but doesn’t want to cuddle up.

Quite frankly, I miss my tiny daughter in my arms who needed me to sing and comfort her to sleep.

I’ve often felt the same way regarding our 14-month-old little girl.  She fights sleep often and wakes frequently.  While both my wife and I wake with her, only her mother can settle her back down in the wee hours...something about having breasts still works magic that I’ll never be able to compete with.  Despite our fatigue, my wife gets up a 5am daily and heads for her bus without complaint.  I remain in bed next to our girl and begin planning our day together.  There will be a day when she no longers needs us at night or during the day for that matter.  For now, we try to enjoy our waking moments together, even if they are at 3 am.  Nice post.

That was just beautiful.

Great post.  My kids are a little older now (6 and 4) and sometimes we have the occasional night time disruption.  My oldest likes to come down and climb in, my youngest just hollers from her bed.  But, this is what it’s all about—taking care of their needs.  I definitely had my share of nights up with a crying baby thinking “Why me?” “Why tonight?” “What did I do today to deserve this torture?” But, now, with a little perspective, I do miss some of those nights.  I’m usually a “live for the journey, not the destination” kind of guys, but in this case, it’s also about enjoying the destination.  Knowing you did what you could for kids and seeing them grow up is the best reward for sleepless nights.  And sometimes, there might be opportunity to enjoy that midnight journey, too!  Thanks for a poignant post that brings back some memories.

I’ve been dealing with this for the past few weeks as our 10-month old is waking up at 1:30 every night.  She’s happy, talking and playing in her crib.  Problem is, she shares the room with her 3 year old sister and I’m afraid that her playing will wake her sister.  So, I go down to their room and try to put Sadie back to sleep and she starts crying.  So...up to our bed for the rest of the night.  Thank goodness my 7 year old and 3 year old sleep like logs!!!

My wife sleeps like a rock, so any night time tending is my job.  I agree about looking back on it with fondness.  I get a lot of joy from those “getting him to sleep” times, especially watching his eyes slowly close while I bob him on my knee.  He did great about sleeping through the night until we got him his Toddler bed.  After that, he was at the gate every night at about 2.  As I get up at 5:30 for work, this wore a little thin after 2 weeks, so I declared war and determined he was going to sleep in his room all through the night instead of climbing into our bed, which was his custom.  That first night was even more tormenting, as he didn’t want to go to sleep and woke up every couple of hours afterwards.  No sleep at all.  I was dreading this and almost ready to throw in the towel already.  Since then, though, he’s been an angel.  He goes to bed and sleeps all through the night most of the time.  When he wakes up, I tell him to “Go night night on your pillow” and he turns around and climbs back into bed.

You had me at sleepless.

My soon to be 9-month old is teething and has multiple teeth coming in at the same time. Ugh! This last week has been extremely challenging for my wife and I. My colleagues at work have been very supportive and sympathetic with my perpetual state of sleepless-induced Alzheimer’s. Nothing that a few large triple shot mochas can’t fix. Speaking of which, I’m due for another refill.