Sleepless Nights and Tantrums: Just Part of My Job

I thought the sleepless nights and long, tiring days were behind me....then, my son turned 1. No, he doesn't get up during the night but, I am such a light sleeper that any noise will awaken me. And, did I mention that he is 1? Which, I learned today that 1 is the new 2.

Last night, two incoming text messages woke me up around 12:30am. I actually had to get out of bed to find my phone because the durn thing will keep beeping to alert me to the fact that I have a message! Then, Bentley woke me up (that's right....the dog!) at 1:30am to go outside. I tried to ignore her, but that is slightly difficult when all 85 pounds of her were breathing on my neck. So, I let her out. Then, at 2:30am, I heard her scratching on the door and whining to be let back in! Once again, I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn't with all the noise she was making. So, I got back out of bed to let her inside. Finally, some sleep until Andrew wakes up at 7am....until I received another text message at 5:30am, which led to the annoying beeping of my phone, which led to me getting back out of bed (for the third time) to turn the phone off. (I don't usually get this many text messages in a week, but my antiquated cell phone delayed sending me these messages until the middle of the night---Yes, Verizon, I hear you.....even in the middle of the night!)

Needless to say, when Andrew woke up at 7:30 this morning, I was a wee bit tired. Chalk it up to motherhood. Our morning was uneventful with going to the Y and grocery shopping. We then headed to the doctor's office with lunch plans at noon.

I will never forget this doctor's visit as long as I live (and, if I do, I will have this post to as a reminder forever!). Oh, Andrew, you are so sweet and charming. ..until something doesn't go your way!

In the waiting room, Andrew tried to crawl under the chairs. Not a problem, until he began crawling under people's feet! I pulled him out from under the chairs and that's when he did something he has NEVER done before in public....he had a full blown MELTDOWN.

As soon as I picked him up, he screamed like he was about to die; an ear piercing shriek. His whole body went stiff, and his face was the color of a tomato. Then he tried to crawl out of my arms. He was pushing me away, grabbing at my clothes, scratching my skin, pulling my hair. I almost dropped him!!

We walked into another waiting area to give the other poor parents a break from his screaming. I am not kidding, but he acted like this for ten minutes! When I tried to put him down, the screaming became louder. He hurled himself on the floor and rolled into furniture bumping his head which exacerbated the problem.

He was that child, and I was that parent!

But, we both survived. I came out a little worse for the wear, with scratch marks and only a strand of hair left in my ponytail. My arms are sore from wrestling him, and I have had a headache since we left the office (not even a diet coke would help this one!).

But, I did it....I survived my first public tantrum. I will admit, it wasn't easy and it wasn't fun, but I survived...and, I did it all on only 2.5 solid hours of sleep. I bet a tantrum won't even phase me if I am running on a good 8 hours of sleep ;)