Planes, Trains, & Automobiles...

Oh yeah, and helicopters, school buses, garbage trucks, dump trucks, landscaping entourages, snow plows, cars with loud exhausts, 'kids with loud music' cars, people that honk their horns, leaf blowers, snow blowers, lawn mowers, tractors....anything with an engine....

Back in my pre-kid days, I used to laugh at parents that said they had to tiptoe around their house when jr. was asleep. I mean, kids are supposed to sleep so soundly that they NEVER wake up at said noises....Then I had Mason.

He slept thru the night at 7 weeks. I was in heaven. I thought I was the best mom on earth. I planned my life around his precious schedule and marveled at his amazing desire to sleep all night long. It was because I was a nursing mom. It was because I had amazing intuition. It was because I attended to his every need so well. I vaccuumed while he slept. I left his door open so that he would get used to noise. I did everything right.

But then something went terribly wrong: He started HEARING things and WAKING UP!! At first, it was really loud things....like crashes in the kitchen or somebody loud at the door. But it soon turned into anything and everything: The squeaky brakes on school buses (there is a bus stop right next door). Tim's truck warming up in the morning. Loud trucks. So I put a fan in his room to drown out noise. Then I put a fan outside his door to drown out more noise. Then I started tip-toeing...and requiring others to talk in hushed voices...I felt rude. I even ssshhhhed people. I was that mom.

But what are you going to do. The kid needs to sleep...for your sanity as much as for his. And when the kid next door catches the bus at 6 am....that's just too early....And when the snow plow comes barrelling down the street at 4 in the morning....

So we know have a white noise machine that works fairly well. And Mason's sleep has regressed too many times to count...so we really don't know what is waking him up or why...I think it depends on his mood. And, according to Dr. Ferber, where he is in his sleep cycle.

But to all of those loud vehicles that cut through my precious 25-mile-an-hour street...there have been times when I have wanted to sniper out my window...with a silencer, of course.