Last night, I was up from 2am to 4:30am.

Not of my own choice.

It all started when Caspian woke up and wanted to BF. Fine. 30 minutes later, he woke out of a milk-induced sleep to sob, "Mama! Mama!" and to beat my breast, trying to push it away from himself. I cooed, "I'm here; mommy's here," and tried to get him to latch back on. He'd nurse for a few seconds, then do it all over again, adding a tortured, "No! No!"

I don't know if he was having a bad dream or if he suddenly decided it didn't taste right or what. Regardless, he finally woke up fully. Grrrr. It was all downhill from there. Throughout this ordeal, I repeatedly explained that it was nighttime, which was the time to sleep. No dice.

He decided he wanted to get down off the bed. "Where do you want to go?" I asked. "Daaah-puh" he replied. Double take. "What did you say?" "Daaah-puh" (grin). "You want a diaper change?" Nod. Woah — first time he's asked! I obliged, then carried his limp (but awake) self back into the bedroom. After swaying with him for a while, I tried laying him down...nope! Wide awake. "Down!" (plaintively). He wanted to go to the living room. Sigh.

When we got into the living room, I told him his toys were asleep, just like daddy. He tried reading books, but I pointed out that it was too dark. I asked if he saw how dark it was, and he did, so I explained that when it was dark outside that meant it was night, and night is when it's time to be asleep. For some inexplicable reason, that clicked (maybe because he saw that it was dark outside just like inside). At this point, it was 4am.

We walked back into the bedroom, climbed on the bed, and settled in...except that he noticed lights. It started with the tiny flashing red light on the smoke detector. It bothered him so much, he started whimpering and pointing, "That! That!" I explained that it wasn't a bad light and it was okay. Then he noticed the flashing red light on the VCR, so I turned it off. Then he noticed the green light on the baby monitor, so I turned it off. Then he noticed the red "lights" of our alarm clock, which I did not turn off. After all that, he was pretty satisfied, so he BFed again and finally fell asleep. When I "came to" he had already detached and was lolled to the side. I laid him down and finally lay down myself. 4:30am. Ugh.