How Does She Know?

Sweetie Pie has started sleeping for about a three to four hour stretch in the evenings. We're putting her in the crib, she fusses, we rub her belly (or back--she's begun rolling over onto her stomach, which freaks me out still to no end even though I remember from when Doodles was this size that once they start rolling on their stomachs to sleep on their own, there's nothing you can do about it), and she'll fall asleep. We put her down at 6 and she'll wake up between about 10 and 11 (although one blissful night, she stayed asleep in her crib until 1:30!). At that point she's pretty much inconsolable unless either Adam walks her or I nurse her and then bring her into bed with one of us.

So, we got cocky. "She's starting to sleep!" we cheered. "She's starting to sleep," we exclaimed. We patted ourselves on the backs. Sleeping Sweetie! We had been wanting to go to New York for a weekend, so we figured, "Why not!" My parents will be there to babysit one night, and I have no qualms with them hanging with Sweetie while she sleeps and then sitting with her in bed once she needs to be transferred. It's not like in the old days where someone would be trapped next to her in bed for the entire evening. In Miami, Adam and I wanted to go out for a drink at the hotel next to my parents' condo. When Sweetie fell asleep, we had to beg the Tweedle Twirp to sit in bed next to her so we could run out for exactly one hour. Adam and I were crushed when the hotel bar was closed for a private party and we booked for the next closest bar, about a 10 minute walk away. We had the bar to ourselves, considering no one in Miami drinks that early unless they're still drinking from the night before. We made it back in 65 minutes ("Your five minutes late!" snapped the Tweedle Twirp--she forgets sometimes that she's complicit in this whole child thing; my children are supposed to take care of her when she's old). But now, everything's changed! We can use babysitters! We can go out on real dates! Our daughter sleeps for a tiny, pathetic stretch of time but we are so conditioned that it feels like a real achievement.

You know what comes next. I bought our nonrefundable hotel room on Priceline. We made plans with friends. We get excited. And Pie stops sleeping. Last night, she slept for one--count 'em one--hour before demanding a bedmate. Crib streak--over!

Sigh. They can sense these things, can't they? And they just want to punish us. I think Pie just doesn't like to leave the house. Doodles, meanwhile, can't wait to get out. I made the mistake of telling him that we were going, and since then it's been nothing but, "I want to ride a subway train now! I want to see Peter now! I want to go to New York now!"

Nonrefundable. Yep. Yep. Yep.