If you've read my first submission, Blessed at Fifty, you know I became a mom to my one year old grandson at that time. This brought some challenges that, at the time, I found hard to believe we would conquer. This submission is a reflection of my year of being medically diagnosed with sleep deprivation.

My little guy came to me unwilling or unable to sleep at night. He was distraught up to eight times each night. I sought the advice of his pediatrician and even saw a sleep therapist together. Music, white noise, light or dark, swaddled or loose, bathed and massaged, letting him cry, nothing helped us. Even my own singing and humming didn't work (LOL).

He needed, really physically needed to touch, to feel me. It is believed his nighttime cries, before coming to me, were not attended to. I prayed with all my heart for patience, patience and to know how to help him (us) sleep.

Because my husband worked during the day, I saw nights come and go with my little one. When I became ill, the doctor said, without doubt, I was sleep deprived. I thought if I was, so mustn't the baby be. That is when, with the pediatrician's blessing, to let him sleep with me when he woke up and could not go back to sleep. This was not a typical fussy, colic baby situation and WE had to be healthy.

The answer to my situation gave me yet another gift. Time. Quiet, safe, warm, sleep time. Time that is now more cherished that he is seven.

So, your time without sleep will pass. Perhaps faster than you'd like. Give yourself a gift. Look at your little one with such love and patience. Watch him sleep (finally, right?). Feel his soft breath and see the rise and fall of his chest. And always say, you, my child, are warm and safe and loved.