Sleep Dilemma

This is the most stressful time of my dissertation writing. And just on cue, as if knows it's the absolute worst time, Aidan is having serious sleep issues. Some nights he sleeps really well. Other nights he wakes up at 4 or 5 AM. Last night he woke up numerous times throughout the night asking for food, asking to sleep with Mommy, asking to listen to the crickets, whatever he could to stay awake. We're investigating the problem and possible solutions.

I have to tell you guys about the fork. Jason got up with Aidan the first time he woke up. I don't know how long they were up because I was drifting in and out of consciousness between screaming sessions. I stopped getting up with him when we assumed that at least part of his waking up was about Mommy. We thought that he would stop waking up if he learned that he'd get Daddy and not Mommy. But then again, we also thought he'd stop waking up all those months ago when he night weaned. Go figure!

Anyway, when I finally got up because I couldn't take the desperate pleas for "Mommy!" anymore, and because I thought maybe he was experiencing some pain from his black eye (Yeah, that's another story. He met with a mean monkey bar at the park.), I went to check on him. I found Aidan in his bed with Jason kneeling down next to the bed holding a bowl of pop-tarts. Aidan flung himself into my arms and it was then that I saw the fork. It was a plastic kid-shaped fork. Not too dangerous but still pointy. I was a little intimidated. Here he was half asleep flinging this fork around while jumping into my arms. I just knew that one of us would be losing an eye. It was then that I tried to take the fork from him.

It was a mistake to assume that he was only holding that fork because it happened to be in his hand. No, he was attached emotionally to that fork and he wasn't giving it up. But he kept flinging it around like a mad man! I laid down on his bed and put him on my chest hoping that he'd go to sleep and lose interest in his fork. A couple of times I tried to take the fork. He'd dart up screaming, "No! Mine!" I had some concerns that he was going to call it his "precious." But he didn't. Those fears turned out to be unfounded.

When he finally asked to go to Mommy's room, I told him he could sleep with us but he had to leave the fork behind. He was torn. I could see the wheels turning in his head and he tried to choose. Mommy? Fork? I don't know, it's just too difficult of a decision! He finally chose Mommy, but later did a few more rounds of asking to go to his bed, then ours, then finally finished out the wee hours in our bed. I think his sleeper is broken. We need super glue!