Food, Glorious Food!
Colin must be going through a growth spurt, because he has (again) started waking up in the middle of the night... convinced he is starving.
It isn't as if he is deprived of food during the day or at night. He eats a hearty breakfast every day (usually sausage or eggs, some sort of fruit, milk, and possibly a granola bar), a decent lunch (a sandwich or chicken or possibly pasta, more fruit, etc.) and dinner. But the last few nights he has started at about 8:45 (just before bed) begging for a hot dog - I slice and cook 1½ dawgs and he devours them with a cup of kefir.
In spite of all this he has been waking up every night for nearly a week around 2-3AM begging for food. Over the weekend in his sleep I heard him crying out "Sausage... sausage.... sausaaaaage!" The past few nights he has popped up without warning insisting that he needs a "bar" (a kid's Clif bar). I now keep food in my nightstand to eliminate the need to stumble down and back up the stairs in my sleep-deprived stupor, so I just give him what he wants.
Yes, I know that some (many?) would say that I should make him tough it out and get back to sleep on his own or he'll just keep this up, but I simply don't have the heart to deny a hungry child food.
Instead I give him the "bar" he so desperately needs, and then stay up for the next 15-20 minutes as he slowly nibbles his way through the bar, taking frequent breaks for sips of water. (I can't just hand it off and go back to sleep because Colin is so groggy I'm afraid he'll fall back asleep with a mouthful of food and choke. And I can't hurry or interrupt him - try and take that half-eaten bar from him and you end up with a kid in hysterics demanding his food back!)
While this only adds to my sleeplessness (Ryan is still teething, and is a total manipulator, and just won't sleep through the night), my greater fear is the future. If this kid is hungry-like-the-wolf now, what is he going to be like when he's a teenager when boys are all ravenous, bottomless pits?
I think maybe we'd better invest in stock in some grocery companies...
It isn't as if he is deprived of food during the day or at night. He eats a hearty breakfast every day (usually sausage or eggs, some sort of fruit, milk, and possibly a granola bar), a decent lunch (a sandwich or chicken or possibly pasta, more fruit, etc.) and dinner. But the last few nights he has started at about 8:45 (just before bed) begging for a hot dog - I slice and cook 1½ dawgs and he devours them with a cup of kefir.
Yes, I know that some (many?) would say that I should make him tough it out and get back to sleep on his own or he'll just keep this up, but I simply don't have the heart to deny a hungry child food.
Instead I give him the "bar" he so desperately needs, and then stay up for the next 15-20 minutes as he slowly nibbles his way through the bar, taking frequent breaks for sips of water. (I can't just hand it off and go back to sleep because Colin is so groggy I'm afraid he'll fall back asleep with a mouthful of food and choke. And I can't hurry or interrupt him - try and take that half-eaten bar from him and you end up with a kid in hysterics demanding his food back!)
While this only adds to my sleeplessness (Ryan is still teething, and is a total manipulator, and just won't sleep through the night), my greater fear is the future. If this kid is hungry-like-the-wolf now, what is he going to be like when he's a teenager when boys are all ravenous, bottomless pits?
I think maybe we'd better invest in stock in some grocery companies...
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