V - 1, Mommy - 0 or The Night I Broke

I am a big believer in discipline and independence. I grew up in a relatively strict, okay, who am I kidding, very strict home, and all in all, I think I was better for it. It kept me out of trouble and I think all in all I turned out okay. So in raising V, for her particular age group now, I adhere to bed times, crying it out (within reason of course), and sleeping in her own bed. Well, all that got thrown out the window this past Friday night.

V won -sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed

V woke up with a mild runny nose on Friday. I sent her to daycare and by the time I picked her up, she had a full blown cough, so much so, that the daycare teachers told me she her nose had been running bad all day and she was generally fussy. Ok – we’ve been through this before. This isn’t this girl’s first rodeo in the cold department. Out came the saline drops and the aspirator and for the most part, we seemed to have it under control. I should also mention that typically, V is a very good sleeper. She’s been sleeping through the night since she was just over 2 months old, and I don’t mean the technically speaking “sleeping through the night” which is a measly 6 hours. I mean, SLEEPING through the night. Anywhere from 10 to 12 hours. Even when she was sick last. Girl needs her rest – she takes after her mommy.. So, we aspirated, took our warm bath, and off to bed we went. Well, about 9 pm, (bedtime is b/w 7 and 7:30), I hear cries of distress from the monitor. Now, I know I’m all for crying it out, but all the moms will attest that you can tell a cry that needs to be tended to now and cries that are just whiney cries that you can let cry out. This was the “Come get me right now, I’m in pain!” cry. So, in I went. My little girl was inconsolable. Well, let me rephrase – she was inconsolable ANY time I tried to put her down. However, finally she did decide she was too weak to fight mommy and back to sleep she went. So, we all followed suit. But V had other plans. Around 12:30 am, she woke up screaming again, and this time, she wasn’t going down without a fight. Now, I don’t know what came over me, call it empathy for my sniffling child, call it weakness, call it just being so tired, I didn’t have the strength to put my foot down. And that’s when she broke me. I not only picked her up and cuddled her, I let her sleep in bed with us! On top of me! The whole night. So, I was hoping this was a one night occurance, but it’s been going on two nights now! In my defense, the girl is SICK. She’s got croup (I think, which is a whole other post) and being in Mommy’s arms is the only way she doesn’t cry. So, for two nights now, amid shooting back pains, V has enjoyed Mommy as her personal mattress. Hopefully she’ll feel better soon and we’ll go back to our normal sleeping patterns, but for now, the score’s in her favor.