Dear Avi,

Please stay asleep at night, or at least lie awake quietly contemplating life to yourself. Almost nightly you wake up crying and lately we’ve just decided you can handle it on your own. Most of the time you fuss yourself back to sleep in about 20 minutes and I’m so proud of you. What a great job!

However, on some nights – like last night, and at least twice a week – you are screaming your lungs out and it sounds serious. So, your father or I try to help. We console you, we hold you, we change your diapy, we give you water, but SON you just won’t let the sleep come back. WHY? What is the deal with you wanting to be unhappily lying there crying with your eyes shut. It’s like you want to sleep but then you won’t let yourself. Are you actually asleep, but screaming? It’s so odd. Sometimes you get all crazy man-handling blanky that I have to take it away and then you can let go. Other times you squirm and crawl all over me – all the while crying. How can I comfort you? I know you were unhappy about weaning last month, but it seemed as though you may never give it up on your own. It was time for me to have my own body back. Sorry. Sometimes when you are such a loony bin the only thing I can do is turn on the light, really wake you up, and then try to get you back to sleep. On occassion you enjoy a nice little leg rub. Do your legs hurt? None of this worked last night. I turned on the lights, and you still cried and squirmed and rolled and rolled all over me. 2 hours, SON, 2 hours until you finally slept….when I heard Daddy shut the garage door on his way to work.

STOP the Insanity. Just sleep, SON. It’s a nice thing to be well rested. It will help you grow and be healthy. It’s comfy to sleep. It’s dreamy and wonderful. You are so happy during the day – be happy at night, too. Little buddy, you are almost 16 months old. You should’ve been sleeping all night a LONG time ago. Just do it.

Love, Mom