Mommy beater!

Daddy is getting a bad rep for his
battered wife's shiner!

I was all set to write this blog about my youngest's ruffian nighttime nature 8 weeks ago - I had the original title "Head banging punk" all lined up March 23rd - then other stories cropped up and I never found the time to finish off blogging about my little bruiser!

I can't believe - nearly 2 months on - he's not yet given up the nightly scrap. At least the nature of the fight has morphed somewhat. His favorite form of attack is no longer head butting. And the biting - fingers crossed - seems to have had its heyday.

Now my little Thai boxer is more into using his fists and feet to batter Mommy at bedtime. I remember my eldest went through a phase where he nipped and poked my face and chest, which was a way of comforting himself to sleep - granted he was still nursing at the time - but he was never as persistent a pain-inflicter as baby#2.

My almost 15 month old stopped nursing a few months back. His aggression through the night had reached an all time high, and woe betide Momma if I didn't let him latch onto my boobies every 45 minutes throughout the night! Yet he was over the milk - he just wanted the suckling to help him sleep.

Not a situation conducive for anyone in the family bed, so I had to nip his night nippling in the bud - and seeing as though he had a nasty tendency to bite down in any conscious state - the well soon dried up and little man had to be cut off from Mamas ta-tas altogether.

A bit early for my liking, but it did the trick. He stopped fighting me for milk during the night, and as a mega bonus - started sleeping all the way through. Hold the phone! I didn't believe babies could do that!

But being weaned doesn't stop the ongoing bedtime batterings before he finally gives up the ghost. He's not upset, or angry, he's just wriggly and bullish with his appendages. He yearns for physical contact with Momma, but then he won't just relax and cuddle calmly to sleep. His preferable form of physical contact is to open a can of whoopass on Momma....!

And being the punch bag - glutton for punishment - Momma I strive to be, I stick by the little thug night after night, until my angel comforts himself to sleep.

I've developed a whole load of duck and dive and roll tactics - not an easy fete being 7 months pregnant - and (mercifully) it doesn't take long for him to wrestle to sleep. Crazy as this may sound, of all the ways we've tried helping the little feisty fella fall asleep, this one is the easiest for me to handle..

Move over Rocky Balboa - this Momma has got you beat hands down for taking 'the hit'!