Using words

A pregnant woman posted on Facebook this morning that she has reached the point "where sleep feels like a statistical impossibility." While I very much remember those days and can empathize, my current state almost led me to follow that with the comment, "I have reached that point in parenting where sleep feels like a statistical impossibility." I didn't. I decided it would be better not to remind her that sleep will be statistically impossible for quite some time after baby as well.

To be fair, my thought came after another night up with a toddler. A toddler who should be able to sleep through the night. A toddler who used to sleep through the night. But a toddler who is blind tends to have sleep issues and will likely struggle for the rest of his life. And maybe someday he will be able to nocturnally entertain himself when he wakes up. Maybe someday we will be able to use a supplement or natural or medicinal method of helping him to stay asleep. Someday. But for now, he beckons, we come.

I've decided, however, that it would be a whole lot nicer to be awakened in the middle of the night to a sweet voice calling, "Mommy, please come,"instead of a loud, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa." And because we're working on using words instead of head banging, hitting, and screams, the middle of the night is just as good a time to work on this as any other. Mr. Victor has built quite a vocabulary these days so why not try? And when I picked him up from the church nursery last week, I did receive the surprise of my life when one of the workers said to me, "Wow! He is really verbal!" I guess I honestly never considered that my son might stand out at anything. So anyway, midnight lessons should be just as good as the daytime variety, right?

I didn't get my chance at 2AM when Mr. Victor first paged. The Good Doctor had decided upon retiring for the night that he would gladly get up with Victor. And true to his word, he did get up for that first call. But after all that work trying to wake up The Good Doctor, I, too, was wide awake. So at 3:30 when a still-awake Victor decided that he again needed some adult company, it only made sense for me to go rather than that whole wake-the-doctor routine.

I stood at the door and asked politely, "Victor, please do not scream. Can you call for Mommy? Can you say, "Mommy, please come"?

I very tiny and very polite, "Mommy, please come," followed my request.

"That was very good, Victor, but when I am sleeping in my room, I will not be able to hear that. Can you please say it louder? You can to call, "Mommy, please come!"

This time he met my expectations so I entered the room, "Yay! Good calling, Mr. Victor. When you call, Mommy comes. What do you want?" (Note that this last question was not out of ignorance but again, a lesson in using words to make your wants known, no matter the time of day.) While waiting for him to answer, I checked for the usual first request.

Paci? Check. Good.

"Brrrrrrr."

"Oh, good using words, Victor. You're cold? Do you want covers? Okay, I will fix your covers."

Before I was finished with that task, the next request came, "Mu-ic?" Again, no surprises, just practice in using words.

"You want music? Good using words! Yes, I will turn on your mu - "

"Bacon?"

"Um..... very good using words, Victor, but no, I am not going to get you bacon in the middle of the night."

"Bacon?"

"Yes, like I said, very good using words, and thank you for asking so nicely but no, I am not getting you bacon. I'm going to pray and then I'm going to leave."

Dear Jesus, Thank you that Mr. Victor is using words. Please help Victor and Mommy to go back to sleep now. And please help Victor to forget that he requested bacon. Amen.