Aimee Doesn't Like Me

I'm thankful that God allows us to go through challenging seasons of life. Of course, they typically aren't much fun at the time, but, at least in hindsight, a purpose can typically be seen. Either He wants to strengthen us in certain ways, or He is preparing us for something that will happen in the future, or ________.

(I have a season of life that I cannot say this about, so this is by no means a foolproof theory. There are times that I simply regret and wish could be taken back, but those times are, in my experience, due to rebellion and caused squarely by our actions. That's not "God allowing" us to feel pain and withdrawal, that's merely consequence of action. But I digress...)

What in the world were we, Robyn and I, to learn when Toby decided to be an insomniac for his first year of life? What could possibly be good about all those nights of no sleep (mostly for Robyn) or bad sleep (for both of us)? What could possibly be good about all that crying?

Well, I kinda knew then--and I surely know now--at least part of the reason. Patience. He knew we'd have a daughter that wasn't going to sleep, either, and we needed to be ready for the struggle.

Why won't our kids sleep, you ask? Come on, I don't have all the answers... :-)
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Thursday nights are my night with our two beautiful children. Robyn is gone from 5:30ish until 7:30ish. This shouldn't be that tough. I know how to take care of my kids! Except, last week didn't go so well. Aimee started screaming as soon as Robyn left and continued to scream for a full hour. How does one take care of a toddler and a screaming infant? This, I still haven't figured out. Thankfully, my sister stopped by and read books to Toby so that I could focus on trying to get the Little Miss calmed down. Eventually, she wore herself out and fell asleep on me.

Surely, last night would go better, right?

Haha! Way worse. Again, Aimee started screaming pretty much immediately. Seher, a mother of an infant (and our new housemate), couldn't take it and tried to rescue me. It didn't get any better. I took her back, and still nothing improved. She wouldn't take a pacifier, and it didn't matter how we held her. Geoff (Seher's husband, also our new housemate) tried to help when he arrived home, again to no avail.

Thankfully, I learned with Toby that babies scream sometimes and still survive. I learned that it doesn't mean I'm an ineffective/incompetant father... there's really nothing you can do sometimes. I learned how to go on with my day even when there's a screaming kid.

I didn't, however, learn how to simultaneously take care of a screaming infant and a blatantly disobedient mischevious toddler. Enter Toby.

I was baffled. Seher was baffled. Geoff was baffled. And Toby was stressed about the chaos. He wound up getting himself in quite a bit of trouble, resulting in a very unfortunate spanking.

After a freaking hour and fifteen minutes, Aimee still hadn't settled down. She had crapped 4 times in that timeframe. She was sweating and crying and inconsolable. And then she puked all over me (and herself). I put on a movie for Toby, cleaned up Aimee, gave us both some fresh clothes...

...and finally had a bright idea. Aimee was momentariliy calm, mostly due to the confusion of the cleanup and clothes changing. I then wrapped her up in one of Robyn's shirts and set her down up against Robyn's bedtime pillow. She was asleep within 2 minutes.

Robyn got home 5 minutes later. "Hi. How'd everything go?" "Well, Toby is peacefully watching Winnie the Pooh, and Aimee is fast asleep in our bed."

Why bother with the details!