I kind of feel guilty complaining about this as I know my sister-in-law, Melanie (a daily reader of my mind-numbing dribble), is at this very moment working on bringing another kid into the family. She and Brian are about to embark on the joy that is complete and utter lack of sleep thanks to a newborn.

But.

Alexis, for the love of God, WOULD YOU PLEASE LET ME SLEEP?

She's nearly two years old, and yet, and YET, she still randomly gets the idea in her little head that she needs to see me in the middle of the night.

This time it's my own fault.

While we were Indy, she slept with me. She would have been content to sleep in a pack-n-play, but I was far too lazy to go to the hotel's front desk and request one. Plus, I wasn't too worried about it. I knew she would happily return to her crib when we got back, and she did. For the first night.

The next night she fell asleep in the car when we were on our way home. Mr. Husband brought her in the house and set her on our bed. For whatever reason, she stayed there for the entire night.

The next night, Mr. Husband wanted to sleep with her. Fine. Whatever.

The next night, she woke up at 2:00 and I was too out of it to fight with her, so I brought her back to our bed.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. More times than I want to admit. Regardless, I created a pattern and I knew there would be payback.

So, yesterday Not-Sleeping Beauty decided she would skip her nap. That led to her requesting to go to bed early (Yes, she asks to go to bed. As in she says, "Sleep, please" EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. That is why I am willing to forgive a night waking every now and then.). I figured that since she had gone to bed early, I would go to bed early. If she woke in the middle of the night, we would fight about it.

So 10:00 rolled around and she woke up for the first time.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMY!"

I went into her room (having JUST gone to bed myself, mind you), gave her a hug, told her to go back to sleep, and went on with my bad self. She went back to sleep a few minutes later and everybody was happy.

At 12:30 I heard "Mooooommy! Moooooommy! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMY!" I got up, turned on her lullaby CD, told her to go back to sleep, and closed the doors. She kept yelling. And crying. And yelling. Just as I was beginning to wonder why exactly she only ever yearns for me at night, she changed things up a bit.

"Daaaaaaaaddy!"

I have to admit, that made me smile. Share the love, kid. Share the love. Of course, Mr. Husband slept through all of the drama. That is, he slept through it all for about 25 minutes. When he finally sat up in bed, I droned, "She's fine."

He replied, "OK" and went back to sleep. (BTW, Honey, I hate you for having the ability to sleep through a train going through the house. I mean, I love you for many reasons, but your ability to sleep through screaming babies makes me want to hurl Bulldogs at you.)

Alexis alternated between requesting my presence and her Dad's presence for a solid hour. At that point, I finally stormed back to her room and picked her up. Immediate silence. Two minutes later, bratty baby snores. So I put her back down in her crib and attempted to go back to sleep.

4:00: "MOOOOOOOOOMMY!" At that point, I gave up and brought her back to bed with me. I needed ten minutes of uninterrupted sleep if I was going to be even slightly pleasant today (which, for the record, I'm not).

Tonight, Alexis, it's on. I will not be broken. You will not leave your crib between the hours of 9:00 pm and 5:00 am. PERIOD.