From the cries of a baby to the screams of a little girl. Learning the art of the temper tantrum!

Last night my daughter and I spent some great quality time together. We had some great cuddles, kisses, lots of ‘Mama loves you so much’ moments and plenty of holding hands through the crib…all between the hours of 10pm and 2am!

Now, I have to admit that I am basically one of those moms all other moms hate, because I have a great sleeper. Honestly it was 5 hour stretches straight home from the hospital, 8 hours straight by 2 months and 12 hours by 3 months. Please don’t throw things at me. I am well aware we are lucky.

It is because of all this that I feel extremely ill prepared for the middle of the night scream fests. Especially since I am back to work now and have to get SOME sleep! Most of the time, she is still great, but when it’s bad, it’s friggin bad.

Last night I tried a new tactic. After about the 6th time of entering her room and cuddling, I tried the ‘stern’ approach. She is 1 now and she does understand much of what we say. If she listens or not is a whole different story. Anywho, I stormed in there and said ‘Lilly, that’s enough. It’s time to go to sleep!’

Thus began the transition of my little crying baby, into a full fledged screaming toddler girl. I swear to god it was like watching a volcano erupt. I wanted to run for cover…or go kick my peacefully sleeping husband out of bed to take over. I took the first option. I stared in disbelief for a moment, then left the room. My thought process was, ‘Ok, when they throw temper tantrums, you are not supposed to give in, right??’ So I closed the door and walked away.

The very second she heard that door latch closed (which was a bloody miracle over her screaming…remember that superhuman hearing I said babies have?) she escalated. Badly. She lost her shit completely and I lost my strength as a result. I did what I assume is the ‘bad mom’ thing, went back in and brought her out. I carried her to the living room and we cuddled on the couch while she calmed down.

After that it was smoother sailing. She relented and I went to bed. She gave it a final few kicks at the can with some whimpering on and off for the next 45 minutes, and then she was out. We slept for what was left of the night and both woke up with bags under our eyes. Well, at least I did. I don’t know that I have ever wanted coffee so badly in my life…even when I was preggo.

I guess this is supposed to be one of my Mama learning experiences. Though, I don’t know really what I learned from it, except that my daughter has an incredible set of lungs! I refer back to the easy street we have had with her until now and figure this is just catch up.

Ideally, no parent would have nights like this, but I know many have had it far worse then me. If this is the sign of things to come, I may need bigger bottles of rye…

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