I'm pretty sure we are the worst parents EVER.

Remember "Pappy" LB's beloved?

Well--at 2 1/2 years old, I yanked the diapers and pappy from LB. We had a couple of rough days, but we pulled through and he was fine.

Fast forward, oh, some 3-4 months and LB finds his pappy in his keepsake box. (Yep, I'm sentimental like that--I just had to keep pappy.) He puts it in his mouth. We laugh. He sucks on it. He remembers how comforting and wonderful it is. He wants to keep it. He sleeps with it that day at nap time. Then, he starts sleeping with it every night at bedtime and during nap time on the weekend. Big Daddy and I keep all of this to ourselves. Our little secret.

After a month or so of this (and the passing of his 3rd birthday), we know it is time for this to come to an end. We prep him that we are throwing them away because he is a big boy. He came home one day and they were "gone". He was fine with it and even bragged that he was a BIG BOY.

But, the nights??? Oh, the nights. He has been pappy free for about a month and, without fail, he wakes up multiple times during the night (and I mean every.night. but MAYBE 3 in the last month). He cries out. He hollers. He screams. Sometimes in his sleep. Sometimes he is awake. And we stay strong and don't give in. Sometimes we let him cry it out. Sometimes we go to his room, reassure him, pat his back, kiss him, and leave. Sometimes we curl up next to him until he settles down. Saturday night he woke up screaming and crying 6 times. Count um'--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Sunday morning we felt like zombies. And LB acted like one all day. At nap time, we put an exhausted boy to sleep. He woke up screaming twice. I guess Big Daddy got tired of it. And, unbeknownst to me, he stuffed LB's mouth with pappy. And, low and behold, we never heard from the kid again.

We tucked LB in bed last night and plugged him up. Guess what? We never heard from him. Bliss. 9 hours of straight sleep--it's gonna take a few nights of that to catch me up, but man it was good.

Pretty sure we are the worst parents ever. Pure exhaustion has gotten to us.