The Battle of the Wills occurred last week in the Johnson household. Tyler was still getting up to eat at 3:00 AM and that just wasn't cutting it with me starting back to work and school. One night, without really deciding that this was the night it was going to happen, I launched a full scale surprise attack on the 3:00 AM feeding.
Night 1: Tyler wakes up at 3:00 AM hungry. I go in there, re-swaddle him, give him his passy, kiss him on the head and leave. He's settled for about 5 minutes then starts crying. I decide to give him 15 mintues to see if he goes back to sleep on his own. Uh-oh, bad idea. By minute 6 or so, he's worked himself up into a frenzy. You parents know that cry-- the WHAH, WHAH, WHAH, WHAH over and over again. I'm staring at the clock... 15 minutes sure is a long time... 8 minutes, how is Andrew still sleeping through this... 11 minutes, Connor comes up to my side of the bed and starts panting in my face seemingly telling me, hey, you do know that baby's crying right? some of us are trying to get some sleep here... 13 minutes, almost there... 14 mintues, he suddenly stops. Oh no, I've killed my baby. But wait, what's this I hear over the intercom? It's Nana. Great Mom, we make it thru 14 minutes of suffering and with one more to go, you go in there and ruin it! Oh well, what's one minute in the long run. Tyler thought he was calling in his calvary I guess. So I get up, Connor rushes out of the bedroom and goes downstairs to hide in the corner behind the recliner, and Andrew is like 'Thank God'. Once I'm in Tyler's room, Mom asks, 'Do you want me to give him his bottle?'. No I don't want you to give him his bottle, I'm in the middle of a war here! I explain that I'm trying to get him out of the habit of his 3:00 AM feeding and that I'm going to let him cry it out. OK she agrees. Tyler settles back down and I go back to my room, and again, within 5 minutes he's back into hysterics. I wait 15 mintues, go back in there and settle him down and leave. We do a routine like this for the next hour and a half. Finally, Mommy's Will wins out and Tyler gives up and falls asleep. I feed him at 6:00 AM, I figure that's a good compromise. Night 1 belongs to Mommy.
Night 2: Much similar to Night 1, except this one ends in a stalemate. Neither Tyler nor Mommy give in and we end up battling back and forth till the 6:00 AM truce time.
Night 3: A lot less crying this time. Mommy is triumphant- Tyler sleeps after being soothed back to sleep.
Night 4: Peace Treaty signed. Tyler has agreed to skip his 3:00 AM feeding and wait until 6:00 AM, Mommy has decided to get up and soothe Tyler back to sleep as frequently as needed when he wakes up at night and not let him cry... for too long.
Sometimes in the middle of the night when he's crying at the top of his lungs, you can forget how cute your baby really is. Let's take this moment to watch a video to remind ourselves.
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