... that there are no 24-hour baby markets in town, because lately between about 1-2 a.m. I would have impulsively sold Jacob at the first opportunity. I would have regretted it the next morning, but I'm not at my best in the middle of the night with his latest antics. I don't think I'm at *anybody's* best at that time...

It's not the amount of sleep that's a problem - he goes to sleep about 7:30 or 8, sleeps till 1 or 2, and then once we get him back to sleep he's usually down until 7 or so, so that's not bad. What's bad is the fact that when he wakes up at 1, he is WIDE AWAKE and wants to play - and if we don't want to play, he screams.

And screams. And screams. And screams.

I would be perfectly willing to let him cry it out. He just has far more tolerance than I do... in this particular little battle of wills, he can way outlast me. So we keep going in and checking on him, snuggling him until he's calm (which, once we pick him up, takes about 4.3 seconds) and laying him back down again. He screams on the way back down to the crib and continues to scream the whole time until my husband or I go back in again a few minutes later. I'll nurse him, that makes him happy in the moment, then he screams again as soon as he's done. I don't think he's in pain, though he is teething - I don't know what it is.

It's been about 2 weeks of this. On top of my gastroenteritis last week, which I am just now starting to recover from, and the fact that both of my sisters are here visiting and they both have it now so I've been constantly caretaking for *someone* at all times over the past week, and my PPD, and the regular chaos which is my life, it's just starting to push me to the breaking point. Last night my husband and I got into a sniping match at 2:30, after an hour's worth of screaming by Jacob, and then when he finally fell asleep right after that my husband decided he wanted to stay awake and talk out all our problems then and there... which, in the long run, I'm sure is a good idea, we needed to talk some things out and I think that, despite the oddness of the house, we really had each other's attention and heard each other's side, but man oh man, I'm operating on a grand total, broken up, of 4 hours of sleep.

Sure hope no door-to-door baby buyers show up today...