Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2003
So, he’s out like a light. I’m so excited that I am tempted to open one of the two remaining bottles of wine that I shipped to myself from Italy last year. But, I won’t. I’m going to save them to celebrate something a little less barbaric than the fact that we just let him “cry it out”. Yes, we did. And, don’t be fooled. I’m opening another bottle– just not one of the ones I shipped from Italy.
Ah! The spicy plum-ness of Malbec and the crisp, clean silence that falls over a house when the baby is down for the night! It’s almost naughty– how pleased I am. But, the boy is asleep and it only took 35 minutes.
35 minutes may sound like a lot of time to listen to your child scream. And, before we had Silas, I thought that parents who let their children cry themselves to sleep were Grinch-like in their sheer inhumanity.
But, now, I am toasting my ability to turn a deaf ear. Ah! The Malbec!
Okay, I’ve been lying about the Malbec. I didn’t even open the Malbec. In fact, I didn’t even buy the Malbec. Well, I ordered it, but I haven’t picked it up yet. I just wanted to sound sophisticated and like I knew a little about wine. But, in order to enjoy a glass of wine and not open one of the bottles that I shipped myself from Cortona last November and are REAL, I would have to open a bottle of San Sebastian Castillo Red, which is good, but made from the Muscadine and not exactly sexy. Sexy is what I have in mind. So, I’m going to put on some jazz. There it is– that throaty vixen of a saxophone, that temptress of a trumpet. And open the bottle of Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montipulciano, 2003.
Ah! The warm glow of a $50 bottle!
I feel like I’m 21 and I just made eyes at some guy across the bar and I am just so certain that he’s going to buy me a beer and then… well, you know what happens.
So, Silas is asleep. Yes, asleep. In his crib. And, I’m telling you that it was, and I have to speak bluntly here, pretty much completely painless. Perhaps that is because we generally spend more than 35 minutes lulling him to sleep, or perhaps it is because we had convinced ourselves that he was really just throwing a fit, or perhaps because letting him cry it out was entirely unplanned.
We went to the pediatrician yesterday for a wellness check up and a round of those unbearable, questionable shots. During our “how’s he really doing” conversation where we took the opportunity to brag about all of the superhuman things that Silas has learned how to do, the subject of sleep came up. The ped brought it up, not us. We wouldn’t bring up such a stinky load of dirty garbage. But, he did. So, we had to go with it.
After taking a brief second to regain my composure– I was so very Jackie-O, I’m certain he never even noticed– I proceeded to describe our compassionate sleep method. The one we were so smug with ourselves about. And, his smug reply– yes, we know you were on the staff at Harvard!– was “I’m not sure what that’s accomplishing.”
And then, like all of the other sources we’ve consulted, he suggested letting him cry it out.
Bastard! How dare you rain on our parents-of-the-year parade!
But now, I am eating the judgments that I made about my pediatrician but wouldn’t speak aloud to him because he’s an authority figure and you just don’t argue with Harvard graduates AND drinking the wine that I actually plunked off the shelf with my own hands in a little enoteca on a cobbled medieval street in Tuscany. I am enjoying the silence in the house (I checked on the little guy and he is snuggled up with the little taggie blanket that my friend Melisa made him and sucking his adorable little thumb… can you write the word “little” a few more times, please?) and listening to jazz, jazz, jazz.
Life really ain’t so bad! In fact, despite the headaches, it is still damn good!
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
It has been nearly a month since you let him “cry it out” for the first time. And having seen him myslf, he IS TRULY a much happier little guy since he has settled in to going to sleep. And having been with you at that little enoteca, I know how precious this moment was to you as I know how special it was to open that bottle of wine. Be proud of yourself. Letting him cry and following someone ELSE’s advice was very hard for you but it was the first of many decisions that you’ll have to make for Silas. This was definately a good one.