Once Upon A Time...I Slept

yawn....


Good Morning.  Well...sort of.  I mean I'm alive and all, but barely.  I've become somewhat inspired to write this post in a sleepless stupor this morning.  As these things you're about to read were happening, I was thinking to myself that this would make a good blog post.  Hopefully I can deliver the story to you as it smoothly went down in my head.  Or at least make it comical and worth your while.  :)

Last weekend when Justin and I traveled to our friends Fawn and Joe's wedding, Annaliese did really well with her naps and sleeping through the night staying over at Grandma's.  Her sleep schedule itself was pretty much as close to normal as you can hope for.

After dropping her off at 1pm last Friday, she ate, played and napped from 4pm-5pm.  Then played, ate, got bathed, and slept from about 9:30pm -7am with only waking once at 4am and putting herself back to sleep.  Ah...the life of a baby.  (I wish that happened more often at home but it's pretty darn close.)
However...even though she did really well at Grandma's house, as soon as bedtime rolled around again she went to bed late, napped late the next day, then for a week she was off her schedule, I guess just because she was out of her element at home and was in a different place for 24 hours.  So all this past week was a challenge, but by Friday she was pretty "normal" again.  Which I was grateful for because Justin has been out of town with his mom for the weekend.  My dad and step mom are here keeping me company while he's away.  Anyway, yesterday all day she did great!  ...Until evening fell.

She woke up at 5pm from her nap and was in a great mood (this is usual).  We ate some dinner, played, and even watched a little Mickey.  When she started showing signs of being tired around 9pm, I started warming a bottle, gave her a bath, fed her nighttime bottle to her and laid her down in her crib.  She was "talking" herself to sleep and babbling from what we heard in the baby monitor, which is what she normally does when she's falling asleep.  Then all of a sudden, she busted out in a hysterical cry.  Like the kind you hear from a child when they're hurt.  I ran into the nursery to make sure she was ok.  No limbs were stuck in the railing...no bleeding.  She seemed ok.  I pretty much contributed her instant hysterics to her biting her tongue or stabbing her top gums with the only teeth she has on the bottom.  Regardless, she was now wide awake and very snotty and drool-y.  So I used the nasal aspirator aka "boogie sucker", got her all cleared up, gave her some Oral Gel assuming those pleasant symptoms were from a pleasantly teething baby and sat her down on the living room floor to join my brother(who was just over visiting) and my dad who were watching the Olympics.  It was about 10pm at this point and because my step mom wasn't feeling well and resting in the bedroom closest to the nursery, I didn't want Annaliese's loud crying to wake her.  So I surrendered the thought of having a "normal night" and we sat in the dim lit living room and watched men's gymnastics hoping that Annaliese would get tired again and fall asleep.

NOPE.

Apparently babies get a "Second Wind" too.  She was acting as if it was 11am...not 11pm...as if she just drank a double shot of espresso!  She was squealing, babbling, scissor kicking, clapping, practicing crawling (which she is very close to doing by the way)...she was as happy as could be.  Not me though.  I was tired.  Dad was tired.  We were waiting for that inevitable moment when Annaliese grew tired and we ALL could go to bed.  My brother was content playing "SongPop" (awesome "Name That Tune" game) on his iPhone and paying no mind to the squealing baby in front of him.

11:45pm rolled around and Annaliese finally had exerted all of her energy doing a great rendition of Richard Simmons' "Sweatin' To The Oldies" and was ready for yet another bottle and to go to sleep.  I took her into her nursery again, sat down in the glider, she guzzled down another 4oz bottle, burped really well and she started falling asleep as I was rocking her in my arms.


This was it!  It was blatantly apparent.  Although she was whiny she was tired and she would sleep.


NOPE.

As soon as I stood up to lay her in her crib she went crazy hysterical again.  I bounced her, softly shhh'd in her ear, swayed her...she was getting more and more angry.  I turned on the light, laid her down on the changing table, sucked out some more boogies, changed her diaper and sat in the glider again and severely glided until this inconsolable little girl who was stubbornly fighting finally... fell... asleep.

I glanced at the clock before getting into bed myself.  12:45am.  I thought "She is definitely going to sleep all night at LEAST until 7am.

NOPE.

5am she wakes up crying.  Usually if she wakes up crying it's from gas.  So I go in (again trying not to wake my dad and step mom) and as soon as I pick her up she burps and falls asleep on me.  Ah...that was easy.  I laid her back in her crib, hoping to get just a few more hours of sleep...and she starts to cry again.  I picked  her back up and she passed out!  Oh ok...I get it.  You just want to be held...*insert bittersweet sigh here*  Well "normally" I would just let her cry herself back to sleep because my back can't handle holding her for hours at a time while I appreciate the want to cuddle and the need for mommy.  While she's still asleep on me, I bring her to the living room try to get as comfy as possible in the recliner and fall back to sleep.

Guess what?....

NOPE.

The cat is driving me nuts cause he wants fed, the sun is starting to rise and brighten up the windows and now I have a snoring baby laying on my chest.  Meanwhile my butt is going numb from the "comfortable-for-sitting-but-not-so-much-for-sleeping" recliner, my legs are bent and twisted to one side and my lower back is screaming for my comfy king size bed.  So I did what any sleep demanding person would do and argued with myself:

Sleepy Me:  Just fall asleep...suck it up and sleep.  You'll regret it if you don't.

Realist Me:  Your back is going to kill you tomorrow.  She's asleep, just put her in her crib and go to bed.

Sleepy Me:  Yeah but you're already here.  Just move your legs to a different position and sleep.  If you move, you'll wake her up.

Realist Me:  You have a huge bed that you have all to yourself with no snoring husband.  What is the matter with you??

Sleepy Me:  Whatever...I'm going to sleep...  Zzzzzzzzzz

Realist Me:  That's it.  You can pick her up and carry her to her crib without waking her up.  You've done it before.  Your back won't let you fall asleep anyway.

The clock strikes 6am and I finally listen to "Reality Me" and start to get the chair out of the reclining position and place my hands securely under Annaliese's little limp body.  I'm ready to do this!  I look down at her mouth wide open and smiling in her sleep.  I must've tickled her while I was trying to pick her up.  Hehe!  I go to use any muscle strength I have left to lift her and myself in one graceful swoop and......she opens her eyes.  NO!  She looks around.  NO!  She does her morning stretches.  NOOO!   And the rest is history.

We're ready to start the day.    


So here I am with bloodshot eyes, on my second vat cup of coffee with about 4 hours of sleep, blogging with Mickey in the background.

And just as I'm finishing up this blog post, I look up...

And we all lived Sleepily Ever After.

THE END


I'm heading for a nap...

Sorry if my story is scattered and all over the place...it's the sleep deprivation....I promise.



Your Friendly and sleepy Mama,