2 hour+ nap

Well, I must have worn her out today. We woke up just in time to get to Refresh (MOPS at Riverview Church) this morning and for the first time I left her in the infant class. She made it through most of the meeting, but they had to have me come get her about 15 min. before it ending since she decided that she missed me. She stopped crying the moment she realized mommy was holding her. After I did clean-up duty with Claire in tow we headed home. I'm assuming she slept most of the way. I stopped at Burger King on the way home so that I could eat lunch while driving and made a phone call while parked in the driveway. She slept through it all! I unloaded the car and put her in her room where she slept...and slept.....and slept! We left church at 11:51 and she woke up at 2:15ish. Hallelujah!! I got so much done as she slept and it felt wonderful. Gotta go. time for another nap - just a 30-minute one this time, I'm sure. : )

This is Beauty

There is nothing sweeter than the sight of your sleeping baby. It means that you have done everything needed of you, everything that you could do. And this is your reward - beautiful, perfect. For all that is required of you at this moment is to simply sit and look at her and think about what her future might bring.

Grrrr!

Tonight is another one of THOSE nights. She fell asleep an HOUR ago, slept for 20 min. and is up. Adam is with her now since nothing I've tried tonight is working. This is playing out almost EXACTLY like last night.

I started this blog to provide a place to vent about the most frustrating, irritating, time-consuming thing in my life - getting a baby to go to sleep and stay asleep. When I talk to Adam about it he says I'm being pessimistic. Well, at least I'm being realistic. I didn't want to post to the existing Kendall Blog because that is meant for happy things that we want to remember and share with everyone, but I can't be happy, or witty, or write with concern for the interest of my readers. Not in this state. 'Cause I'm mad!! It's no use to complain to anybody because they just say or think, "She's a baby. What do you expect?" So that's supposed to make it all rosy? It still pisses me off that I can spend up to 4 hours a day, 28 hours a week trying to get her to sleep.

After months of trying the gentle techniques, I am burnt out. I don't want to TRY anymore. I CAN'T try anymore. At what point do we just leave her in there crying.........I may be pissed and frustrated beyond belief, but I'm not there yet. Last night she was up until 10:00. You would think that after 1 1/2 hours of napping today she would pass out tonight - but no! I had her strapped into her bouncer all calm and peacefully dreaming. One thing left to do before I could leave the room - slide my hand out from under her thigh. Thumb free. Pinky free. Ring finger free. The eyes pop WIDE open and my "me time" for the day is cut to 1 hour instead of 2.

I'll talk to Adam tonight about the "Sleep Lady Shuffle". It's a gentle method of teaching her to fall asleep on her own. You start out seated right by the crib and progressively work your way out of the room. It's supposed to take 2 weeks - call me crazy, but our little peanut is not going to master the art of falling asleep in 2 weeks. The only thing she's becoming a master at is "most stubborn being in the house", which is saying a lot if you know Adam or I at all.

Ahhhh! A sigh of relief....she's asleep only 1 1/2 hours after she usually (used to) falls asleep. Now for me time.....I've been waiting for this.