#27 Help Me, Mom.

I just finished listening to the It’s Okay to Laugh: (Crying is Cool Too) audio book by Nora McInerny Purmort, and I absolutely loved it.  I started following her podcast a few weeks ago – Terrible, Thanks for Asking – and I was curious to learn more about this person who has been through so much, yet has found humor within the heartbreak.  She truly has a remarkable gift with words, and I admire the way she handled three major losses in her life with such strength and grace.

One story that she shared involved having an encounter with her late husband.  He told her he wanted to help her in any way that he could, and requested for her to make a to-do list for him.  She found a notepad and began writing, one of the action items requested that their son would sleep through the night.  That very night, he began sleeping through the night and no longer had issues with sleep.  After hearing that, I thought, why not give it a try?

Our 9 month old, the most perfect little human in the world, has struggled with sleeping through the night for most of his life.  He finally was getting the hang of it around the 6-month mark, but has now regressed and has begun waking multiple times during the night.  It’s been pretty painful for all of us, including our 3 year old, who sleeps across the hall from him.  On particularly bad nights, our oldest will wake up in the morning with dark circles under his eyes, and we know that he had as rough as night as everyone else.

So I created a to-do list yesterday, and this is what I wrote:

Help Me, Mom:

• Please help Nathan sleep through the night.

I am completely serious when I say that he not only slept through the entire night, I did not hear any sound coming from his room at all.  He also woke up incredibly happy, smiling and clapping when I walked into his room this morning.  This was incredibly rare; the mornings he wakes up happy are usually few and far between.  Normally he wakes between 4 and 5 a.m., demanding to be fed.   It might have been a complete coincidence, and I probably sound crazy, but I am willing to try anything for a good night’s sleep.

However, if this is my mom at work, I would like to make one additional request:

• Please let this next week go smoothly with Dad visiting us with his new girlfriend.