I'm Not Sleepy!

E that is, not Mommy. Has decided that she no longer needs to sleep. Ever apparently. Yesterday E threw me for a loop by messing up her whole entire loose but existent schedule. The one that Mommy depends on to get a few hours of extra sleep herself. But alas, NOT yesterday.

I think I've mentioned before that E usually goes down for an early AM nap. Maybe I haven't, either way, she used to. She'd be up for about an hour and a half, and then down for about 2 hours. Which was great. It was long enough that Mommy could catch some Zzzs herself. Well yesterday E wanted to get up after being down for 40 mins. And was just on strike to go back to sleep. So up we were. I hoped that maybe she was just putting off her long nap. Perhaps we'd be up till 10ish, and then she'd go back down for a couple hours. So I held out. 10 came, and I put E down. She slept for 40 mins again. Then I had to try to get her back down. She fell asleep that time, and was asleep when noon rolled around. Mommy so wanted to just go back to sleep, but since nap time is at 2, it seemed as though it would be a mistake to let her keep sleeping at this point. So we all got up.

So far not TOOOOO bad, Mommy wasn't a total mess. I was so sad to have missed my morning ZZZzzzs, but I thought we'd survive. So at 2 I put E down for her nap. And by 2:30 she was actually sleeping. But alas, starting at about 3:30 she was waking up. And at 4, she made it perfectly clear she had NO intention of going back to sleep. So again, up we got. All I could do was look at the clock, do the math, and think, 3 hours to bedtime, is WAY too much time. So I called Daddy and let him know it was likely going to be a difficult evening.

Good thing I did, by the time Daddy got home, E was on full blown meltdown mode. Usually I can just snuggle her on the couch and she'll take a little cat nap for 30 minutes and that will hold her over until bedtime. But tonight, she A) Didn't want to take a catnap and B) Decided she was done with Mommy and the only person who would do was Daddy. If Daddy held E she would stop crying. She would sit there and look around. They looked out the window, and they tried to play with the cat, Daddy gave E a tour of the house. They did many things, anything E thought would distract her from falling asleep. But finally every couple of seconds her head would droop down and her eyes would close. And then they'd whip open. If she could have given her eyelids whiplash I'm pretty sure she would have!

She didn't make it to bedtime, we started bedtime 15 - 20 minutes early. Daddy gave E her bottle, she drank an oz or so, and then went right to sleep. So that was that... right...? HA! About 20 minutes later she was up AGAIN. I went up to try to get her back to sleep. Upon seeing I was the parent she had gotten and apparently NOT the one she was requesting, she melted down completely. I tried everything. She just wouldn't stop crying. I finally entered the kitchen with E in just her diaper (having tried to take her out of her jammies to get the crying to stop... sometimes it works), and said to Daddy "She's broken, I can't find the off button, She doesn't want me, she wants you." So Daddy went upstairs and it took him about 30 - 45 minutes. But again, he got her back down. YEY!!! Well... she woke up AGAIN another 2.5 hours later. And that time, AGAIN, it took another 30 - 45 mins to get her back down. By 11:30 Daddy and Mommy were exhausted!

So she is clearly at this new phase of development where there is just so much to do, that she doesn't want to sleep. She fights it with astonishing precision, and the results are disastrous. All I could say to Daddy was, thank HEAVENS she was NOT like this on Monday night. Because had she been like that when I was trying to put her down by myself for the first time, it might have traumatized me permanently! Anyway... Today is a new day. I'm trying to keep her awake for longer this morning before I put her down for her nap. But it looks like it's about that time. So hopefully today will be a better day! I'll let you know later!

Stay strong Mommies and Daddies! Who dropped the Pacifier?