$5

There are many, many things I love about living in the West. One of my favorites is that you can buy a Christmas tree permit from the USDA for $5 and cut down your very own tree from one of the nearby national forests.

We head up around Mt Hood for ours every year during the Thanksgiving holiday. This year was especially poignant as it was our pup's first tree hunt and - at 15 years old - most likely our golden retriever's last.

Sweet Jesus! She Sleeps!

"Some women's husbands buy them plastic surgery enhancements," I joked to Missy's Ear, Nose & Throat pediatrician post-op, "Instead, mine gets my daughter's adenoids removed so I get the gift of sleep."

So that's what it was. In the weeks following surgery to remove her ginormous adenoids, waking during the night has become the exception not the rule for sweet little Missy. She regularly goes 11 to 12 hours. Miracle upon miracles.

I won't gloat, because I hated people who gloated that their kid slept through the night when mine was waking every three hours. But, I mean, c'mon. I might be a little bit due. She didn't sleep for more than four hours at a clip for 18 looooong months. Until now.

Sigh. So blissful. Sleep. All six, seven, even eight (!) hours of it. I can remember phone numbers again. I can walk into a room and remember what I came in there for. I can put her to bed and - shocker! - actually go do something without her waking in an hour or two.

To quote the t-shirt: Life is good.

I honestly have to credit my nanny and the book, "The No Cry Sleep Solution," for my good fortune. The book got me seriously thinking that Missy might have sleep apnea. And my nanny galvanized me to act on it.

As for our regular pediatrician... She can suck it. When I brought up the no-sleeping-through-the-night-yet issue at Missy's one year appointment, all I got was 10 pages of cry-it-out and the Ferber Method protocol. As it happens, she could have asked me three basic questions: does she snore? what does it sound like on the monitor just before she wakes up? have you or your husband had your tonsils and/or adenoids removed? And referred me to an ear, nose and throat pediatrician for further review. Sleep apnea in children - and especially in babies - is vastly underdiagnosed. I now know why.

The best part though is Missy when she wakes up. She is all rosy cheeked and bright eyed. Like a baby should look when they wake after a long night's rest. Gone are the dark circles and pale visage.

Yes. Life is good.