Thank you guys for the wonderful comments on the whole sleep issue. We’ve decided just not to push it anymore, since clearly she is not ready for the transition yet.  In deciding that, however, we were still left with the dilemma with what to do about her crib and climbing out.  And then, I got a glorious comment from Angel that mentioned the crib tent. (Thank you! You really are an Angel!)

This is totally the solution for us right now. It’s a win-win situation.  Savannah gets her beloved crib back, and we adults feel safe again with leaving her in there.   We bought one yesterday, but have yet to drag the crib back out of the attic and try everything out. I just can’t let her sleep in that hard port-a-crib for the next 6 months to a year until she’s ready for her bed. A girl deserves a proper bed, yes? And, added bonus, she can’t throw out her pacies when she gets mad at us for putting her to bed! Muahaha!

Oh, I hope this in the win-win solution I hope it will be! I’ll let you know. And again, thank you for all the suggestions! It helps just to simply know that we’re not alone.

I need to go study so I won’t get a C on my two tests tomorrow…but before I do that…I just had to share what my crazy girl did.  I’m laughing at how silly she is, so that I won’t break down in tears.

See, for the past 2 and half weeks we have been trying, unsuccessfully, to switch  her to the big girl bed.  We decided to make the move, even though she is just 18 months old, because she was extremely close to climbing out and we feared breakage of the neck.  The first night it took 2 hours to get her to sleep, but she did it and slept through the entire night. The next day, she took a nap in her new bed. I was hopeful, frustrated but hopeful.

Since then, she’s slept in her bed only a handful of times.  The second night she sobbed and sobbed so I bought back out the pack-n-play crib to ease her fears.  This process by far has been the most frustrating and hardest thing I’ve had to deal with as a parent. Some nights she screams bloody murder about going to bed, some nights she falls asleep without any problems, some nights she just plays and plays and plays until we just have to put her in the crib so we can go to bed ourselves.

We have seen improvement in that she knows now to stay in bed when we say to, but it’s still a battle pretty much every single time.  She chooses to sleep in her bed, but when she doesn’t listen and tries to get up, she’s warned that she will go into her crib.  Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn’t, and she just ends up in her pack-n-play crib because that’s pretty much the only place she’ll readily go to sleep now.  It takes anywhere from 45-2 hours to get her to sleep now and it’s wearing us thin.

We’ve tried everything. The girl is just the most hard headed thing (really, I don’t know where she gets it).  If we try to discipline her with “popping” her bottom or hand she just laughs at us and does it again.  Oh, we are doomed as we head into the terrible twos. Nothing works with her.

Our Dr. recommend just leaving her in her room (baby proofed) with a gate so she cannot get out. He said she may play, but eventually she should go to sleep.  Sounds good, right? Logically, that’s the only thing that worked when we were training her to sleep in her crib throughout the night as well. But, I don’t know if this will work. Today, after an hour of her playing alone I came into this:

What am I going to do with her?!  And seriously, please, please give me some advice on how to get her to sleep.  Once she lets herself fall asleep, she’s great and sleeps through the night. She just won’t let herself get to that point most nights unless she’s in her crib. She’s too distracted by her cool shutter doors, or her baby doll.

Perhaps that’s the answer right there. Take away all the fun stuff like toys and stuffed animals (and hide the dirty clothes….) so it’s less enticing to play. I want her to be bored and go to bed. It could work. Maybe?

HELP! How did you make the switch? How long did it take?

Things going wrong:

-Savannah found Mark’s energy gum and decided to have a piece (Go ahead, laugh with me)

-She fought sleep until at least 9:30 last night (her bed time is 8pm).

-She then woke up at 1am WIDE EYED and ready to play.

-I used my stern Mommy voice too many times in my frustration and exhaustion.

-Slammed some doors, too.

-I tried everything, nothing worked.

-So, at 3:30am I did the ultimate bad Mommy thing: Went back to my own bed and turned off the monitor.

-I spilled orange juice this morning (Do you know how sticky that stuff is?)

-I look and feel like crap.

-My face is breaking out worse than it has in a long time (Will I ever grow out of acne?)

-Dude, I’m tired.

-And very, very, very grumpy. I’m not used to this sleep issue stuff anymore.

The Things That Make This Day a Tiny Bit Easier:

-Savannah let us sleep in until 8:15am.

-She’s not whiny today.

-Tomorrow is Friday, which means one more day and I’ll have help to maintain my sanity.

-I got to take nice, long, hot shower by myself (a rarity these days)

-Yup, that’s about all the sunshine in my stormy day.

I think I’ll go take a nap now.

Things are improving. Savannah slept nearly 12 hours last night (knock on wood). I however, did not.  My brain is still used to being awake from 2-5 or some odd time in the middle of the night and I didn’t sleep well at all! That, and it was hot. And? My husband keeps taking up all the room, nearly forcing me off the edge of the bed. hm.

But the good news is that when Savannah sleeps good, the whining is minimized. And therefore I may be tired but my nerves aren’t pushed over the edge like last week. All is good over all.

Other than that, there isn’t much new to report. I’m enjoying my days, refreshed from the weekend, with Savannah. She’s learning new sign language all the time along with new words. She knows how to sign and say “more” and “all done” (especially involving food), which also minimizes the whining.  Man, I love Baby Einstein.

Also?  I’m enjoying relaxing reading some good ole Christian Fiction books. I found my way to the tiny-dinky library in my tiny town and was happy to find they had more selection of my kind of books than I thought!  And, they will send books from the bigger libraries in the area for me to pick up, so that helps. I’ve finished nearly 3 books already in the past week.

I love summer.

(Savannah is currently looking, pointing and talking at baby Kaylee pictures. Aw.)

Well…that didn’t work.

She was fast asleep by 7:15 worn out from playing in the sun and taking a walk. I was hopeful that she would sleep through the night, or at least not fight sleep when she did wake up during the night. Nope.  It only got worse. Instead of waking up at 4am, she moved it up to 2am!  And succeeded in fighting sleep, laughing at it even, until 4:30am.  So needless to say, I’m tired. We’re all tired.  Mark took off work today so that I could sleep in, he got up with her at 6:30am.

But good thing there wasn’t a car accident involved today, right?

Actually, there was a worse accident involved as Mark’s Mom fell in the bathroom during the middle of the night and cut open her face right near her eye. She seemed in good spirits despite how horrible the bruising is, the bleeding, and I hear even bone showing. Ouch, ouch, ouch. We’re waiting for her to get back from the emergency room. Keep her in your prayers, would ya?

Let’s back track, shall we? In Savannah’s 15 months of life, there has always been issues with sleep. When she was an infant, it was being up every 2 hours for months to nurse. Sure, the length between night awakenings got longer as the months went on, but it was pretty exhausting up until about 10 months old. Then, something seemed to click and she only wakes up one time now. But now when there isn’t excessive waking up times, there is always something else. She fights naps, she fights going to bed, she gets up way too early, or she insists that you stay in the room with her in order to sleep. Occasionally she cuts us a break to catch up on her sleep, therefore letting us catch up, and she’ll sleep heavenly for a week or two.

Like last week? Heavenly sleep, mostly. There were many nights she slept from 8pm to 8am (or even 9 am! Never had she done that before). If she woke up, it was only once and though it might have taken a while to put her back to sleep (insisting you stay in there with her), she did go back to sleep until at least 7. It was nice.

This week? We’re in hell again. The past few days she has decided that 5am is the perfect time to get up for the day, when clearly it’s not by her tired eyes and laying around (me, too). And last night? She was up at 4am. FOUR! When I went in there to give her more pain medication (she is teething, after all) she looked exhausted and laid back down, but the instant I left the room it jump started her fighting battle that has lasted well into day light. I tried everything to get her back to sleep. Rocking, swaying, walking, talking, praying, rubbing, laying down with her, etc. By an hour I was so frustrated and tense, that I put her down in her crib, walked to my room and punched a pillow. I haven’t done that since I was a kid. As much as I prayed and prayed for answers and patience, nothing came.

Finally an hour and half later Mark emailed work to say he wasn’t coming in today, and took over for me. Thank God for awesome an husband. He then did the only thing we hadn’t tried: the car.  Which, at this point, he has a minor accident backing out of our drive way into our neighbor’s parked car. See. This sleep issue is not good! All the way around!

I just don’t get why my child hates sleep? I hear that separation anxiety becomes a bigger issue around this time, so maybe that’s part of it? Plus teething? Lord, help me.

Last time we had this issue of WAY too early wake up calls, I read to move her bed earlier. And it worked, strange as it sounds. So, I think I’ll try that again, and bust out “The No-Cry Sleep Solution” book while I’m at it for other measures to take.

But, do you have any advice? Is your child (or children) as weird sleeping wise as mine? Have any stories that make me feel better and that I’m not alone?!

Some times, you’ve just got to hit play twice. I don’t do it often, but there are days where I just need a few extra minutes with my eyes closed when it’s been a rough night or an extreme early morning wake up call.  This morning was one of them as she woke up at 5:30 am and screamed and screamed from that point on. We have Baby Einstein DVD’s that are 30 minutes long. They’re educational, she loves them, and it gives me some much needed mommy time.  Alert the Bad Mommy police, I don’t care.  I’d rather her watch a few extra minutes of TV then me be in a bad mood the rest of the day…then I really would be a not so good mommy.

That sad, today I have an ultrasound on my hernia spots to see the damage.  From that we’ll know if I’ll need surgery or not. But from my last Dr. visit, it sounds like if I keep the um…digestive process…going then my hernias should be fine without surgery. So that’s good news!  We’ll see if the ultrasound confirms that today.

Also, regarding that same previous post. I did change my minor to Journalism. I’m signed up to take the intro course next semester, so hopefully it will “click” with me more than awful technical writing I’m in now.  It’s not often I dread a class this much, I generally love to learn but these projects are ridiculous!

Now I must shower while the girl is finally, finally napping (I hope).

Savannah is slowly getting better. Yesterday had it’s horrible, driving me insane moments. Sick baby = whiny baby. And that? Isn’t so much fun to listen to all day. And not to be able do simple tasks like eat, pee, and sit because she was glued to me the whole day and I had to be standing.

Thankfully, the fever seems to be gone today. But, as soon as pain medication wears off she gets whiny again, so I’m guessing she still feels achy and miserable on the inside. Poor girl. She did wake up a few times last night but get this…we all slept in until 8 am! Non-parents will not understand the true luxury of this. But for us? With a child who some times gets up at 4:00 am? 8 am is amazing.

And then. When Savannah went down for a 2 hour nap, Mark and I slept to! We’re all well rested today. It’s wonderful! And it feels so nice outside, like spring. See, I knew better days would come!

Also, if you’ve noticed I now have (tasteful) ads on the left from BlogherAds. I’m so, so excited about this! Part of the main reason I wanted to switch to my own website was to take advantage of their opportunity of putting up ads to make some kind of profit with this blog I love. Plus, I just love BlogHer and it’s a good way to promote it and other great bloggers! It’s an honor to be apart of such a great company, with other awesome bloggers and a great staff. Go check them out.

I just don’t understand why my daughter has decided sleep is the ultimate evil since about…oh…4 o’clock this morning (I’m wondering if teething is the culprit). 9 hours later she finally took a nap…a wimpy one hour nap. And now? Fighting a second nap. I guess by bed time she’ll be ready since it will be another 8 hours later from the first nap? *sigh* The good thing though, is that she’s in an excellent mood! No sleep without the whining is more manageable. But, geez, Mark and I are exhausted.

It’s been a long, long day. Thankfully, the day has been spent at home verses my usual 7 hours away at classes that was supposed to be today. Today was a snow day! But now it’s more like…a rain day because all the snow melted under the rain. Pooey.

I chose to drink out of my Wilmington, NC coffee mug today in attempt in trying to keep my spirits up as well as my eye lids from dropping over. Why? Well, that’s where Daddy O and I went on our honeymoon. And it reminded me of how wonderfully peaceful and beautiful it was there. The restaurant to the left is one we ate at, we even got to eat on a little balcony. Happy memories help, right? It worked for about 1 minute. If only we could go back to that simplistic time, ya know, away from everything, the baby, the school, the work, the laundry. And we could sleep all night on our king sized temperpedic mattress and take naps whenever we felt like!

Have I mentioned it’s been a long, blah day? I need a vacation.

 (by the way, I apologize for all my gloom and doom posts lately.  It’s just how life is right now!)

We’re back. For now, at least. We’re headed back out on the road (thankfully, only a 2 hour trip verses 7!) on Friday.  Our trip was good. The time difference of an hour threw us all off.  Savannah was scared of Maw (oh, stranger/separation anxiety!).  Savannah slept surprisingly very well, waking up only once or not at all each night. Though, she did get up early, like 5:30.  It was hard and some times frustrating to keep up with Savannah, trying to keep her entertained and contained within her small play pen and not breaking things. Over all though, it went well. I know Maw loved seeing all of us, especially Savannah! Mark had a good time with friends and family, that’s always a good thing.

Other awesomely good news: I made straight A’s this semester!  I did it! Therefore, I now have a 4.0 gpa. I’m so unbelievably proud of myself. I haven’t made straight A’s since elementary school, and I got a giant cookie back then. Where’s my cookie for this time? Just kidding, I could care less about a cookie or any other prize.  This pride I feel within myself is one of the best feelings in the world.  That pride comes from knowing that I can do things (and well) if I try.  I have had so much going on this past semester with raising Savannah, getting little sleep, sickness, long night of teething, a new marriage, traveling, endless piles of laundry, etc. and I still managed to get through school. And make all A’s! 

I think this second year in college I’ve also learned how I best learn and the best ways to study.  That, I think, is what made the biggest difference because I had little time to study this semester but I was able to do it efficiently.  I’m looking forward to next semester, though I’ll be piling on even more. With a 1st birthday to plan (already?!), a possible job, and an extra class 15 hrs. verses the 12 I had this semester) in a whole ’nother language! 3 semesters of Spanish is required for my English Degree. It baffles me. 

Off to my piles of laundry just to repack it again!  Look for our exciting news soon…