Which Parent Deserves to Sleep More…

Cold season has begun.

Throw into the mix the strange weather that we've been having in New York (75 degrees in late October!) and the germs are just flying back and forth between my 4 year old son and 18 month old daughter.

My daughter had a cold a couple of weeks ago, my son missed most of this week of school and then, last night, my daughter started coughing.

She basically needed to be held or comforted on and off all night.

All.

Night.

Long.

I took the first really long shift, my husband took over for a bit in the middle and then I was up again.  I'm generally not complaining because I know my husband helps out more than most other dads that I know…but, man, I was so tired by morning that I couldn't feel my face. 

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An Auspicious New Year–Shana Tova!

As a kid, I was always fascinated by the fact that I got to celebrate the beginning of a new year 3 times–for the start of the school year, for the Jewish holidays and in January.  3 clean slates of sorts, 3 chances for do-overs, 3 new beginnings…kind of nice, actually.

As a parent, amidst the nice newness, I get to cook and make sure that my kids are presentable for the holidays, get my son's stuff in order for preschool (and deal with the looooong separation process), and try to figure out how to keep everybody busy during Winter break.  Still nice, but infinitely more complicated.

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Letting baby cry it out causes brain damage?

My 3.5 year old took forever (or what seemed like forever) to sleep through the night, and an eon longer than that to start going to sleep without being held or having his back patted. Once we finally had him on track, he was hospitalized for his asthma, which sent us back to square one.

My 1 yr old hates to sleep. She is so super alert all of the time that it is near impossible to get her to sleep during the day or at night…in fact, we have all but resigned ourselves to letter her nurse, be rocked or pushed in the stroller until one of those 3 no longer works.  I'm a big believer in the methods of The Baby Whisperer (Tracy Hogg) but, with a second child and no nanny I've been more going with the flow out of necessity this time around.

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