Voicemail from the devil and other bedtime stories, Continued

Ok, so to continue where I left off:

D was grumpy and I was anxious even just going to bed that night; neither of us said it aloud, but both of us were expecting a bad night of crying. So I went to bed praying, praying, praying. Asking God to please, please, please let E go back down without crying when he wakes at 3.

This whole letting the child cry himself back to sleep for a few nights to wean off that 3:30 a.m.ish waking may seem like no big deal to a lot of you, certainly not warranting major prayer. But please let me remind you that our entire house is the size of your family room. So there is nowhere to escape the furor of a baby shrieking in the middle of the night. The shrieking that is designed, by nature, to raise the blood pressure of any adult within hearing--and none more so than the one trying to sleep 4 feet away who is trying to be patient with his wife's fanciful notions of child-nurturing. It's not like D could choose to slip off to the living room and sleep on the sofa for a night and escape the worst of it. He already was in the living room, on the "sofa."

The girls sleep right through everything, just so you know. That is one benefit of raising kids in a small house with no interior doors--they get used to evening household noise and some light coming through their doorway, and sleep soundly through most anything. Including the only horrible lightning storm we have ever experienced out here in CA, about 3 years ago--the house was shaking and the windows were rattling with every lightning strike, as loud as cannon fire. The kids didn't stir.

In fact, our trust in the girls sleeping soundly would be why we were blessed with baby E to begin with. ; )

ANYWAY, D made a nice big fire so the house would be warm all night and we could at least rule out cold as a reason for a baby waking/not going back to sleep. We made a point not to stay up too late, so we could get some sleep before we feared the hour of crying might begin. And I was praying, praying, praying.

And God heard, and had compassion, and answered my prayers. The little baby who had been waking up faithfully at around 3:30-4:30 every morning SLEPT without a peep until 6 a.m.! Which, if you remember, was the time at which D and I had agreed I could bring him to bed and nurse him back to sleep so we could all get another hour (or maybe two, in my case!) of sleep. Hallelujah!

BUT, in case you are thinking either of two things: "Well, that's great, but why attribute to God something that was bound to happen naturally?" and/or "That's awesome, E slept and you got a good night's sleep!," let me finish the story. Because at 3:30 right on schedule, I was awakened--by my cell phone chirping and beeping. It seems my phone suddenly remembered that it had a voicemail that had been left over 10 hours before. So right at the point when E would naturally have been waking, I was up and fumbling around in the dark for that dang phone to shut it up (Because of course it is the kind of phone that does not stop alerting you every 30 seconds until you acknowledge it).

And E did not wake up.

I went back to bed, thanking, thanking, thanking God. And THEN at 4:30, was abruptly awakened by the clattering BANG of Sunny kicking the wooden "safety" rail off the edge of the top bunk and it dropping down onto the hardwood floor of the bedroom. So, again, right at the point when E would naturally have been waking, I was up and fumbling around in the dark to get that rail back up (of course tripping over it when I first walk into the bedroom, causing it to smack resoundingly against both the crib legs and dresser).

And E did not wake up.

And I went back to bed, thanking, thanking, thanking God, profusely.

'Cause the devil sure had his way with me that night, and did his damnest to wake up my baby and stir up strife between me and my husband. But God had compassion on my family, and against all reason, they slept. He didn't need to protect my sleep--I'm the mommy, so I have many years experience of going without. And I am honored to have witnessed God at work in my home, directly answering my prayers.

Since that night, things have been mostly really good! A few nights E did not wake up at the 3:30ish hour; the nights he did wake up he was quickly soothed by me picking him up, resting him against my shoulder without words, swaying and sometimes patting, and a few moments later just laying him back down and covering him up. He has never cried and cried again.

Twice, however, on nights when for some unknown reason he was up WAY too late at night--not managing to fall asleep until around 1o p.m.--he woke up even MORE in the night, adding 11ish and 1:30a.m.ish to the normal waking routine. Ugh. Which goes to prove the seemingly counterintuitive parenting adage that the more sleep babies get, the better they sleep, and the less sleep babies get, the worse they sleep. But still, even when he wakes up more, he still goes back to sleep without a struggle. I am so, so thankful for that.

Last night was one of those bad nights, where E woke up every two hours and required me to pick up and rock him and resettle him. So our bedtime woes are not over--but it really looks like the crying in the night thing is over. At least, I am praying that it is so.