I got some sleep!
My husband came home for a long lunch and made sure he was taken out and played with, then my daughter did the same when she got home from school. You have no idea what an extra 2 hours of sleep has done for my patience and sanity level.
As for rotating potty nights with my husband, its a great idea, but not something we can do right now. Jake is in the Army and getting ready to deploy in a month, so they are going through alot of training right now that he NEEDS to be attentive for. My daughter also needs to sleep, so she's not falling asleep during classes. I dont mind having to be the one to always get up, considering Im at home all day anyways. The crate is in the office/kitchen area (we have sort of an open floor plan with only a small bar seperating the kitchen/office/living room. I have been sleeping on the couch, far enough away and out of his sight, but close enough to hear him whine to go out at night. Its an xlarge wire crate that we had for Charlie. Maybe I should put him back into the small one for bedtime, and only use the bigger one during the day so he has room to play if he's awake? We dont use a sheet over the crate, but it is pitch dark in our house when the lights are out. He has the ticking toy and the sound of water flowing in the fish tank beside him.
dogcrazyjen.. we only tried the attention thing one night (last night) so the crying/whining isnt because he's gotten used to the whine - get attention bit. We tried a week of ignore it, and will be going back to ignore it, now that we know attention wont work either. Actually Im REALLY glad it didnt work, because I dont want to have to sing/talk/play him to sleep every night, but I was so tired last night, we were willing to try anything.
The wine idea sounds damn good!
Cuda - I was thinking of filling the bath, and drowning MYSELF!
I just took him out and played with him abit before I sat down to reply. I put him back into the crate, and although there was alittle whining, he seems pretty content and playing in there again, by himself, quietly.
Go figure.. next time I have a problem with the dogs, Im going to post it here immediately, and maybe it'll stop.