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Do you remember the original Nintendo? The one that came with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt? The controllers had cords and you couldn't really save your progress- you had to leave the game on if you wanted to pick up where you left off? There were cheat codes- ways to get to secret worlds, ways to keep going after you technically died. They were complicated- you had to push buttons in seemingly random order to get the machine to do what you wanted. And all this before the Internet- the secret codes were published in gaming magazines. What would kids now say about our games then?

I feel like my son is that original Mario Brothers game and the key to getting him to sleep is the right combination of feeding, bouncing, rocking and letting him cry it out. If I could only find the right gaming magazine! And if the secret code didn't change on a daily basis!

When he had a routine, he took a morning nap about two hours after he woke up. He would wake up, eat and go down again two hours after that. I know it's weird- he's NOT a morning baby, I don't know what to tell you. When I first started staying home with him, I thought that he should take his morning nap and then take an afternoon nap about two or three. We tried to do that for a few weeks without much success. Finally, I was walking him one day at 1 pm and he fell asleep in the stroller. I thought this was weird and too early for an afternoon nap, but the next day I went ahead and put him down at one. He was out within 10 minutes. He slept through the night, no problem.

I'm not sure what happened between there and here- I think that there were some bad nights with the appearance of his first two teeth and then Nannie and Grandpa were in town and things got a little disturbed there and now we are here- no naps, waking up in the night and staying up for several hours. I know that he's tired- he's falling asleep as soon as he starts nursing and he's clumsy and short tempered. He rubs his eyes and sucks his thumb and the minute I put him in his crib, he starts screaming and doesn't stop. I know that you're supposed to let them cry it out. He cried full steam for 20 minutes today without stopping. Just how long are you supposed to let them cry??

So here we are tonight. He napped for about 45 minutes in the car today and that's it. He was up for 3 hours in the middle of the night last night. I know he's tired. He normally goes to bed at 8. He didn't make it through dinner about 6:30 tonight without a little meltdown. My kid's so advanced, he's going through the terrible twos at 8 months! I held him out until 7 and went ahead and nursed him. He was asleep in no time and when I switched sides, he didn't even wake up to start nursing on that side. When I tried to put him down, though, then, he was wide awake and screaming. So I took him back to nurse on the other side. Same deal- fell asleep almost immediately until I put him down. I finally ended up standing in his dark room rocking him until he fell asleep. I put him down and then rubbed his back until he got settled. This worked last night too, but I had to put him down, then pick him back up three times or so before he finally stayed asleep. I think that he is waking up in the middle of the night because he is not sleeping in the afternoons- sleep begets sleep, right?

I've tried taking the approach of following his cues and putting him down when he seems tired. I've tried following the clock to a tee and putting him down exactly at certain times. Neither seems to work and we're both exhausted. Any ideas??