Late to bed, early to rise makes Mommy a Rock Star?

It's not yet 8:30 on this lovely Saturday morning and I've already had a busy day! As I laid in bed at 5:30 this morning, I thought about this post and how it might come together. I wondered if others would find what I was doing at that particular moment humorous or insane. Do you even realize what a Rock Star Mom I am?

You see, at 5:30 this morning I had a 15-month-old Little Man draped across my chest, wiggling and trying to get comfortable; his head on the very furthest point of my right shoulder, his ribs pressed against my chin. This is one of Little Man's favorite early morning sleeping positions - and one of my least favorite. But, at this point of the night/morning, I'll do nearly anything for just a few more minutes of sleep! Little Man hasn't yet accomplished the most coveted of early childhood goals - sleeping through the night. That's right, for the last 15 months we've been waking up a minimum of twice per night to tend to our son's nighttime needs; be it a fresh diaper, a sip of milk or some cuddling. I'm exhausted! DH is exhausted! Little Man is as happy as a little lark!

I read about other children who sleep through the night early on and I feel an envy that isn't easy to admit. I see other moms - moms who don't rely on caffeine to make it through the day and who don't have dark circles under their eyes - and I fantasize about changing places, if only for a few nights! I hear from moms whose children nap for hours during the day and sleep all night - I long for the time these moms must have to clean their kitchens, catch up on laundry, browse the internet without a toddler yanking on their pant leg!

Little Man is my last baby. The only one born since I became a full-fledged mature woman. My last shot at being the Mom I want to be. This time around I have access to the best parenting advice out there and the opportunity to thoughtfully and intentionally parent. I've tried to follow all the expert advice that will help me mold Little Man into a secure, confident man some day; exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months, making my own baby food purees, carefully introducing each new food, reading to him, talking to him constantly, providing all kinds of engaging and stimulating activities and play, rocking him to sleep each night and comforting him as soon as he alerts us to his distress, breastfeeding beyond his first birthday, cloth diapering since I became a stay-at-home Mom.

So why is my guy still not sleeping through the night? The experts say that every child is different and that many children do not sleep through the night without waking until well into their second or third year of life, regardless of the parents' efforts. This information is supposed to comfort mommies like me, and to an extent it does - this is normal, to be expected - that's good. But it doesn't help me get any more sleep or function during the day any better! Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm amazed I manage to get done all I do! I'm a damn Rock Star!

I've been reading a series of books, with *ahem* Shades in the title, over the past few months. It's funny to me that I was thinking about the story-line of the book, which focuses on a young successful lady that meets a gazillionaire who happens to be extraordinarily good in bed, and I realized that of all the things the main character in the book gets - new cars, luxury vacations, amazing sex, homes in all the best vacation destinations - there's really only one thing I truly envy. She gets to sleep through the night! I'm not sure why I'm even continuing to read the series because it's actually not all that interesting to me. I'm on the last book, though, and I feel like I need to see this through to the end. Is it bad that when I read last night that the main character is unexpectedly pregnant, I felt a little joy at the thought she'll soon be sleep-deprived too? Nah...not bad at all! Welcome to the tired mommy club Anastasia!

Back to my bedroom this morning... At 6am, Little Man let out the first toot - with his hiney just inches from my face. I thought "This will be hilarious in a blog post someday!" Then, Little man let out a few more toots and I began to fear the worst was about to happen. I managed to relocated his stink-emitting little body to my side just as the squishy-gross undeniably nasty noise happened.  So just after 6am I was changing my first of many stinky diapers. I can't help but wonder if Little Mans's sudden need to fill his diaper multiple times this morning has anything to do with him chewing on the dogs' toys yesterday. Yes, I am a rock star of a Mom! A very tired Rock Star...

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On an entirely separate note, I'm excited to announce that I have been chosen as the guest blogger over at The Wild and Wonderful World of Gingerssnaps in celebration of her 4,000th page view! I'm excited for her at reaching this milestone! Having just broken the 130 page view mark myself, I can't imagine how much thought, effort and time in front of the computer went into earning those 4,000 visits! W3G is a fun blog to read and follow and I encourage you to hop on over and read some of her stuff and check out my guest post while you're there!