A Rough Night

Colin woke up crying just before 11pm last night. He was screaming bloody murder. I laid in bed for about 15 minutes, watching the monitor and waiting for him to put himself back to sleep. This did not happen and the crying continued at a fever pitch, so I got up and went in to him. We were then awake together until about 2am. He was exhausted, but he simply would not go back down. I tried every single trick in the book and nothing worked, including letting him cry. He would fall asleep in my arms, but as soon as I would lean over the crib, he would start screaming again. I could feel the tension in his body even as his eyes were closed...I could tell that he was keyed up and was just waiting to scream when I attempted to move him. He had no fever, nothing was wrong, he just wanted to be held. And rocked. And that was that. The problem with this whole scenario is trying to figure out when to go to him and when not to. I knew immediately after I went to get him that I had made the wrong decision. I was worried that he was ill or something was wrong, so I went in. Had I stayed out, he would have finally put himself back to sleep. It would have taken about 45 minutes since he was so worked up, but he would have. Colin is the kind of baby that sees me and then he will NOT go back down. This has been our problem all along. Once I enter the picture, the night is a loss. It always takes hours to get him back down at that point. But I am a mother! I don't want to take the chance that something is really wrong! Now that he sleeps through the night 95% of the time, when he does wake up screaming, I assume he actually needs me. This is not always the case, but I can't know! Anyway, I just had to vent. After a night like that, I am a waste the next day. I just wish that I had magical powers. ;-)