The earthling is moving to DW! For real this time!

[thefourthvine]

The time has come!

So, the last time, with me asking people to opt out, did not work well for some people, so I am doing this the traditional way, as an opt in filter. If you want to read about my kid, and see photos of him and so on, the radio button below is for you! If you don't want to see them, take no further action and your wishes will be granted!

Poll #3717 DW earthilng filter

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 408

View Respondents

TEAM EARTHLING?

View Answers

Yes! Put me on the DW earthling filter!
408 (100.0%)

Comments

[cathalin]

You must not take the Earthling away from meeeeee!!! He is so unbelievably precious and it's so fun to hear about Someone Else's Two Year Old! <3333

[thefourthvine]

I would never take the earthling away from you, and I would never, ever deprive another parent of the joy of hearing about Someone Else's Two Year Old. That joy is the dividend you get for having had to deal with your OWN two year old(s). (A different kind of dividend, of course, is the gut-clenching empathy I felt while talking to a woman at the earthling's preschool - who had pregnancy insomnia and whose son is a bad sleeper and always has been, no matter what they do, and thus she has not had a decent night's sleep in two and a half years. I looked at her red-rimmed eyes and heard her choked up Not Going to Cry on the Playground voice and I hurt for her in a way I couldn't have before the earthling, because I couldn't have understood what those long interrupted nights do to you when they don't. Ever. Stop. And I was extremely grateful to the earthling, who lets me sleep. Only parents understand the real horror of a child's sleep problems, I tell you what.)

[cathalin]

Today I woke my teenager up at 2 p.m. This was the child who routinely woke me up, like clockwork, every morning at 4:45 for about five years. I am not kidding. Eventually when he got older I could put in a video and doze with him in my arms (for his safety) in fitful bits. In between having to look at Wonderful Things In Fox And The Hound Mommy! (A movie that for some reason he fixated on and it, and nothing else, would allow me a few extra precious moments of sleep).

I... don't know where that came from, but the point is, sleep is highly highly underrated, as we have discussed. I am third hand cringing for that poor woman.

Don't worry, Earthling will figure out how to challenge you despite being a good sleeper! They are ~sneeky.

[thefourthvine]

I am hoping that the earthling is going to stay on the good sleep for a bit, since he's already put us through the wringer in a big way on that one. Twice. (Three times if you count his first month, when he was entirely happy to sleep as long as he was on a person. He just did not want to be put down at all, ever, for any reason.)

But the thing with kids is: whatever's happening right now is going to change. (The sad part is, I know this when it's a good thing that's happening right now. But when it's a bad thing, I'm all, "Maybe he is just NOT GOING TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT EVER AGAIN" after one bad night.) So we will surely revisit the sleep wringer sometime. Just, please, not soon?

I am third hand cringing for that poor woman.

Oh, god, I know. And she sounded so defeated, you know? (She paid for a big name sleep consultant. Twice. To no avail. That is how desperate they are.) And she's reached that point where she's like, well, obviously I will never sleep again, so I had better just Get Things Done and Live My Life. And I wanted to say to her: NO. SLEEP. Your life will be more fun to live when you aren't always on the verge of weeping from exhaustion! It's easier to do things when you aren't always doing them wrong because you're so tired! Use the time he's in preschool to NAP, for the love of Morpheus!

But we all have to make our own calls on that, of course. Still. Naps are love. I truly believe this.