Child Abuse

I really need to find a number to call for help. It's Jacob...someone has got to stop him, or at least make him sleep!

He woke up at 4 a.m. last night. I went in to check on him. I offered him water, he refused. I gave him a back rub, he continued to cry. I picked him up after he begged me to, then he pushed me away. I put him on the floor and he went straight to his bookshelf and started picking books for me to read. After about an hour and a half of trying to convince him to be soothed back to sleep by sweet readings, Angie came to check on us. I was at my wit's end, so she took over the Jacob watch. I think he fell asleep within half an hour for her.

He slept till 7:30, then got up and wanted to read some more. I finally convinced him to come downstairs and have some breakfast. After three bites, he decided he was done. No amount of cajoling, coaxing, singing or podcast listening would convince him to eat any more. We went to the family room to play with blocks and such. Eventually, I finished my breakfast around 9 a.m.

At 10 a.m., he pretended to be sleepy. So we went upstairs to his room to read some stories and hopefully start an early nap for him (and also an early nap for me!). Two hours later, we came downstairs for lunch without a wink of sleep being gained by either of us. As you might guess, he had three or four bites of lunch and was done. And he started to pretend to be sleepy again.

By 1 p.m. I was totally desperate. He had picked up Curse of the Were-Rabbit from our DVD shelf, so I took him to the Mac to watch some of it. Thankfully, he fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie. And stayed asleep for 3 hours, during which I managed to have a little catch up nap.

After dinner (which he finally ate a good deal at), we were hanging out upstairs. He took some books into our room to read in our bed. Angie and I lay down on each side of him. At first, he would toss finished books aside right into Angie's face, but he switched to me soon enough. Finally, bath time came for which Jacob was excited. He splashed a lot (on me). Then we dried him off, pajamaed him and got him to sleep.

So far he has been sleeping well tonight. But who knows when he will awaken again! I'm leaving the DVD in the Mac in case of an emergency.