Just sleep already!

I don't think there is anything in my life more irritating than a child who refuses to sleep when it's time. I have worked so hard to teach Blake to go to sleep on his own. Despite the fact that he woke up at an unreasonably early hour, I was pretty proud of the fact that he would sleep a good 10-11 hours straight. And, I could put him in his crib awake, hand him his binki and he would go to sleep on his own. Those days are so gone.

Blake's schedule started to get worse in the beginning of December, but seriously the last few weeks have been unbearable. He has been teething and has a rotten cold, and I can hardly get him to sleep 2 hours in a row. After being up all night, he took 3 10-20 minute naps today. I think I'm going to lose my mind! Luckily my awesome Mom came over for a few hours and I took a nap. What would I do without her?

I figured that I was to blame for part of this problem because we've been schlepping him all over town for Christmas parties and keeping him out late. I decided that we would start "sleep training" again and let him cry it out until he went to sleep on his own, but then he came down with this cold and he seems just miserable. I can't leave him alone to cry if he truly is sick, but this is really taking a toll. I am so done!

I've tried Motrin, and Tylenol, and teething tablets, and Vicks BabyRub, a vaporizer in his room, and elevating his mattress. I hold him and he screams and arches his back. I feed him and he screams and kicks me. (One good thing about this cold is that he's kind of lost his voice so he can't scream as loud!) I flip on the light and unwrap his blanket and he smiles at me and rolls around to reach his toy. Is he playing me? Am I going to make it to his first birthday? Is he going to make it to his first birthday?

I put him to bed around 7:30 tonight and after nearly 3 hours of struggling with him, he is once again calling my name. . .