Reason #1 why The Child will need therapy:

After being about 30 seconds away from a complete and total mental breakdown (at 4 in the morning) about a week ago from the Sleepless Wonder (see previous post), I decided there simply MUST be something wrong with her. Why else would a baby be so completely incapable of sleeping? So off to the pediatrician we went. The diagnosis: a perfectly healthy, non-teething, non-ear-infection-having, non-constipated baby. Hooray! Oh, and this baby no longer knows how to go back to sleep when she wakes up, and freaks out....hence exhausted mom.

His recommendation: Time to cry it out. Now, before I had The Child, I was of firm mindset that babies only cried when something was wrong, and it was the Mom's duty to figure it out, and address that need. It was how they knew to trust you, know you'll meet their needs, blah blah blah. And I still believe that to a degree. But I have needs too. Namely, a good night sleep (meaning, not getting up for 2 hour stretches from 2-4 am every night....as had become our nightly ritual).

So, I talked about this with Husband. And having been convinced that this will not make me a neglectful mother, we decided to try it. Night 1 = hysterical screaming for 55 minutes (baby, not me), followed by a Pomegranate martini (for me) when she finally stopped. Each night has improved, just like everyone told us it would, but my guilt has not. She still greets me with a huge grin in the morning, reaches for me and kicks her feet with excitement in anticipation of being picked up out of her crib, so I know she isn't holding that big of a grudge.

However, I'm convinced that this has started the list of reasons why, no matter what I do, my child will need therapy. Anyone know a good pediatric shrink I can use in about 16 years?