We’ve entered another rather unfortunate phase of M. waking up in the middle of the night. Sure, we might be going to bed between 9-10 each night, but waking to yelling and screaming at 2:30 AM still sucks. Last night, M. was in rare form, though.
I got up with M. the first time at around 2:30. She had twisted her body into a weird angle, kicked off her blanket, and lost her binky. I straightened her out, covered her back up, and offered her pacifier to her, which she snatched up greedily. She opened her eyes wide, which I should have known was a bad sign.
About 15 minutes later, there’s more noise from her room. Not really angry-upset noises, but more the sounds of a baby who is wide-awake and wants to play. I rolled out of bed again and found her standing up, holding onto the crib rails, smiling. I picked her up, sat in the rocker, and tried to calm her. She immediately dropped her head against my chest and seemed to be going back to sleep. 10-15 minutes passed, and I was nearly ready to try to put her back to bed. Just before I made the move, she popped her head up, looked at me with wide, crazy eyes, smiled, and tried to shove her binky into my mouth. Great, she’s definitely in the mood to play.
Over the next 45 minutes, I was witness to the first performance of M.’s variety show. She told jokes. Something along the lines of, “Yoooww ahhh baaaah yoooowww mamamama,” offered with great drama and seriousness. Pause. Ridiculous laughter. I either missed the punch-line or it was something only a ten-month-old can appreciate. She danced, bouncing up and down on me. There were some songs, too, but she failed to combine them with her unique moves into a song-and-dance number. She did magic tricks, continuing to try to both make her binky disappear into my mouth, and trying to make my nose disappear by grabbing it and yanking as hard as she could. I found all of this slightly humorous and a little painful. She found it to be great fun.
I gave up and brought her to our bed around 3:45. She laid there quietly, looking around for about five minutes until S. got up to use the restroom. Keep in mind, M. had been perfectly happy for the past hour with little or no whining. As soon as S. went around the corner, instant screaming. I still can’t quite figure out how these babies and their emotions work. We medicated her with Motrin, S. rocked her for a few minutes, and she finally fell asleep again a little after 4:00.
You might think this little early morning playtime meant we got to sleep in for a change. You would be wrong, although 6:35 is much better than 5:00. Naturally, though, around 8:00 M. utterly collapsed on the couch with her mother while I went to the gym. No matter how tired and worn out they make you overnight, there’s something about seeing them curled up, in complete peace, napping that makes all the weariness and unhappiness go away.