Singing with Pete at 4:00 in the morning

16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:"Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:16-17

For the last four or five nights, my two and a half year old son Pete has been waking up crying around 3:30 in the morning. The first few times we just let him sleep in our bed with us for the rest of the night, which was probably a bad idea. Now it has almost become habitual, so we decided yesterday to take a "tough" stance on our son's mid-night melodrama.

As expected, Pete began crying uncontrollably at 3:31 last night. He strolled into our room and I firmly told him to return to his bed. He objected at first, but then retreated to his room as ordered (side note: spanking works… Pete understands that we expect him to obey the first time we ask him to do something, even at 3:31 am). He went back to his bed but just kept crying. After 10 minutes or so I went in there to try and figure out what was going on. He calmed down while I was in there, but when I got up to leave he freaked out again. I told him to stay in his bed and to stop crying, expecting that he might wear himself out and find himself asleep once he realized that we weren't coming to get him no matter how much he screamed.

My expectations were not realized. Continue reading this post »