April 19, 2001 - Thursday
Harry had shed yesterday's fever by last evening, but that didn't help him sleep well last night. He woke up several times over a period of some four hours. And, whether that was a result of him resting too much during the day yesterday or not is hard to say, but he was having trouble sleeping and, therefore, so were we. Harry's mother and I both tried to coax him to sleep and we both succeeded. Unfortunately, the successes were always short-lived and he would inevitably awake again at any attempt to put him in his crib.

With the rational thinking of proper waking hours, I now believe Harry must have been sleeping lightly due to the teething pain of his lower molars. But, last night while I would rather have been sleeping myself, he gained little sympathy. He was simply far too ready to be awake and at one point even lifted his head and began rattling off all his words: sky, chair, plane, flower, et. al. I was not impressed nor did I marvel at his cuteness. No, I was much closer to "pissed off" that he might be working his mother and me for attention in the middle of the night.

With frustration mounting and sleeping hours fading away at about 4am, and after hour-long lullaby duty from each his mother and me and when the distant whimpering and howling continued to invade our sleep beyond return, I committed myself to Harry for the rest of the night. I took my pillow, set it up on "the green thing" mat on his floor, and laid Harry on my chest. I must concede to being astonished at how quickly he fell sleep and thinking I might actually get back to bed, I tried to put him in the crib. Naturally, I waited for the marked twitching and heavy breathing of serious sleep, but Harry woke as soon as he touched the crib's mattress. After acquiescing to the green thing and rubbing and rocking him to sleep again, I tried twice more to get up, thinking I had just been a little too rough that first time. I never made off the floor with Harry and was indeed there for the rest of the night.

And, we've already committed ourselves to doing this again...


Comments, opinions?