I should have known better...

So last night I broke one of our cardinal rules or parenting...and boy did I pay!

The rule: never, ever, EVER enter a room where Eleanor is sleeping. Ever.

But last night, Scott was out of town, and something woke me up out of a lovely sleep at 4 am. I listened for a minute, and heard nothing. Lay back down, and heard a moan. Sat up, listened again, heard a whimper a couple minutes later.

Now, I know that if I open the door, Eleanor will wake up. I also know from long and sad experience that, if she's crying, going in to comfort her will never ever help. Never has. Not once, not multiple times. It just prolongs the misery; we've even timed the episodes.

But Scott wasn't home, and I thought, well, she doesn't usually cry out in her sleep (or not enough to wake me up anyway) - what if something's wrong? What if she's cold (we keep the house around 55 at night)? What if her leg is stuck in the crib? So finally, in the interest of at least occasionally feeling like a good mom, I got out of bed, pulled on some pants, and staggered into the kids' room, only to discover two totally flat-out asleep children.

Well, they were asleep.

Eleanor's head instantly pops up, eyes open, and she gives me that confused hedgehog-in-the-headlights look. I cover her up with the blanket again, stuff her puppy in her arms, shush her briefly, and back out of the room.

No luck. Instant screaming, choking sobs, and meltdown in all possible ways. "Mommmmeeeeeee!" I kick myself, and listen for a few minutes, hoping against hope that it's a fluke and really, she'll fall right back to sleep.

Right.

Then I hear an irritated little voice saying, "Eleanor, stop crying! Go back to sleep NOW! Please stop!" My son, who (as usual) is a blanket-wrapped eggroll of misery when woken, is intervening.

This didn't help. So I stumble back in, and do the hush/pat/rub back thing for a while until she's calm, and then firmly say, "Good night, Nora. Go to sleep now," on my way out the door for the second time.

Meltdown #2.

Anyway, to make a long story somewhat shorter, she DID fall back to sleep. I didn't go back in again, but nonetheless missed out on a significant chunk of my early morning sleep.

Which is my perhaps not excellent excuse why we didn't go to the gym this morning. That, and I wanted to go to Jewel to spend my six coupons (yay! free crackers!)