Never Get Complacent

So last night I was chatting to a mutual friend of ours who was still dealing with a crying baby, sleepless small person, and night owl older child - all of whom should have been asleep in an ideal world, giving their mama her computern'alcohol time before falling exhaustedly into her own bed.

Now, I won't say that I felt smug, due to the fact that my four year old had gone down without a fuss and was cheerfully and independently asleep before 8.30. Not all, I've had the endless, screaming bedtimes that went on and on while the adult portion of the evening ticked by, hour by hour, and left me a snivelling wreck at somewhere like 10.25. Millions of them. So it certainly wasn't smugness, it was more like relief I was feeling.

Still, I breathed too soon. About 11.30, my daughter had a bad dream - I went in to try and comfort her, and of course it developed in to one of her full blown, weirdy freaky night terror episodes, angry, miserable crying sessions where she's not really awake, but still compos mentis enough to insist repeatedly 'I hate you, Mummy' and hit out, and tantrum, all through half closed eyes.

Then she woke up enough to have pains in her ear, arm, legs and anywhere else she could have them, and refused all comfort, insisting she wanted to 'cry all night'. That was a bit heart wrenching, until she also demanded a nose wipe every three bloody minutes. And screamed irately, refusing to do it herself. WHY??? Why must I perform this slavish act of wiping her bloody nose? I don't get the significance. She hates me but she needs me to wipe her nose. ARG!

After an hour, I finally had inspiration - the rescue remedy, arnica (for the hell of it) and child essence had got me nowhere. Maybe she did have a real earache, who knows. Calpol! Taa daa! Instant fix. Perhaps I'm wrong about a drug free life, I suppose it works for everyone else... but I'm not going to worry about that now, just want to share my message. Parents, when considering, or even voicing your successes in the realm of sleep and your children, mark my words...

NEVER GET COMPLACENT...