We tried the cry-it-out sleep method last night. Josh did not put himself to sleep. He woke around 2:20am wailing in his sleep. I tried to soothe him, offer him a pacifier, I turned on a fan for white noise, wound up a music box he likes- nothing worked. So I gave up trying and decided to let him cry himself to sleep. He cried from 2:2o to about 3:40am. At 3:40 I intervened. Not only was he not letting up in his cry and falling asleep, but neither was I. I gave it a whole hearted hour and almost a half. Despite the cry-it-out method not working, he did tire himself out and slept from 4am to 7:30 without a peep. I like the effect of getting him tired enough to sleep the rest of the night, but not at the expense of keeping me up and making him cry for so long.

On another front, Rusty declared to me last night that he feels he has a drinking problem. He doesn't have a destructive problem (anger, driving, doing stupid things) but it is persistent. Just about every night he ends with a "night cap" of either scotch or a rum and coke. Some nights he fills up on rum and coke and goes overboard. Like last night. Learning from my mother's experiences with my dad, I am determined to nip this in the bud. Today I will empty the house of our alcohol. Even the wine we sometimes drink at dinner. I haven't figured out where to put it, but it all needs to leave the home for a while. Next, we'll talk things out and work on his nighttime behavior. Get him a new routine for the night. I have to applaud him though. He did the best thing he could do- he involved me. He acknowledge this was getting out of hand and wanted my help. This is already a great start to overcoming the habit.