This Butter is Tired.

I know, it is a horrible cliche, but this mommy is tired.

I have a friend, who shall remain nameless, her name starts with Cara, and she has a very sweet and chubby little daughter who is one month older than Eliot. She sleeps. All night. Like 12 hours. And this is how they get her to sleep:
Step One: Put her in bed.
Step Two: Say "Night, night Lila"
Step Three: Leave the room for a night of crafting, movie watching, laundry doing, or even adult conversation.

What?

Here are our steps:
Step One: Nurse Eliot until he passes out.
Step Two: Leave the room and start an activity, such as eating dinner, reading a book about how to get your baby to sleep, and/or have an adult conversation.
Step Three: Eliot wakes up. Nurse him to sleep again.
Repeat. All night. After 11:00 pm, replace Step Two with sleeping until you start to dream, and then wake up to repeat Step One. Step Two will almost never last more than 2 hours.

For those of you who knew me pre-baby, you know how much I loved my sleep. It was listed as one of my hobbies: knitting, cooking, reading, crafting, napping, etc. I knew that I would get less sleep as a mother. I have, after all, participated in the culture for the past 31 years. I even commented that it 'wasn't as bad as I thought it would be' when E. was just a couple of months old. I now take that back. It's worse.

Okay, that may be a little dramatic.

Eliot is most definitely the happiest baby on the block, albeit the most awake one. We have tried many things: swaddling, shushing, baths, swinging, bouncing, singing, mixed tapes, blanket on, blanket off, etc. We even tried formula. Yes, this die-hard breastfeeding mom tried formula in a sleep-deprived stupor, maybe one bottle, just one drop of this man-made nectar, will make my baby sleep. I was very pleasantly surprised when he flatly refused to drink it. I was glad he was strong when I was weak.

When we are up at night, there's usually no crying or screaming (well, at least not on Eliot's part) just quiet nursing or a state of awakeness. I forget to remember sometimes that he is only going to be a baby for such a short amount of time, and I should just buck up and start enjoying this before it's over, and I'm up all night worrying about how we are going to pay for Harvard or the stress he's going to feel as President.