How to Argue in the Middle of the Night?

My recent Georgetowner column discusses the struggle that new parents have when they combine sleeplessness with disagreements about parenting styles (read more here). The reader question reminded me of my own middle-of-the-night arguments when our children were newborns, something I spoke about a few weeks ago with OnParenting's Janice D'Arcy on WashingtonPost.com. If you can remember the Imago rules of mirroring, validation and empathy during a disagreement with a loved one, they are the key to keeping calm and coming to a place of understanding. But in the late night hours, with a screaming baby in your arms? Sometimes just mirror, mirror, mirror, really is the best we can do.