Last night, Boone would not sleep. And for you non-parents, “not sleeping” rarely involves a supine baby in quiet contemplation. It means crying, thrashing, screaming, shrieking and perhaps side one of Slayer’s Reign In Blood.

Lately, Wyatt’s been protesting his bedtime and we know the drill:

• give him a chance to wind down;
• if he doesn’t, go into the room after 10 minutes;
• smell for poop;
• If he’s poop-free, lay him down again;
• tell him “We’re here, it’s okay” while placing a comforting hand on his chest;
• leave;
• open a bottle of Central Coast cabernet and pour yourself a few glasses to ease the jitters.

Usually, that routine works on the first go. But, for a while now Boone’s gone to sleep pretty easily, so we haven’t needed to figure out his specific drill for this situation. We tried everything we knew, but Boone still raged for nearly 90 minutes. What finally did the trick was a second bottle of milk. Then, Wyatt woke up. We were wiped out from handling Boone, so Wyatt got a second bottle, too.

I might have gotten a second bottle as well.