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 days I just need to breathe, take a step back and just breathe.

The toys on the floor are tripping me, the clothes are hanging out the drawers.

The beds aren’t made, the curtains are shut.

The baby is crying with 4 teeth attempting to emerge at once.

Her pain, is my pain. Her tears are my tears.

I cannot take much more wining.

Please, can Mommy have a break, too?

My days don’t end at 5pm, they last 24/7.

Up at night, up in the morning, every minute is devoted serving.

Please don’t misunderstand, I love my job.

But please, please, can Mommy have a break, too?

Just one minute breathe.

I really should be studying for a test coming up on Tuesday. Or, ya know, writing a paper about a play I didn’t even like. But, geez, that is so boring. And it’s the weekend! I don’t want to be boring!

Anyways, operation sleep was going good. For one whole week (or slightly more?) we got decent sleep with only 2 wakens a night, she was easy to put back down, we had our routine down pat, and even naps were on a consistent schedule. We were doing good, and I haven’t even read the whole book! All I did was keep a routine…it made THAT big of a difference. However, now we have an early riser (I’m not a morning person). But hey, I’ll take what I can get. Better sleep is better than sleeping later.

Until…teething hit. Again. This once a month teething thing is killing me. Even worse that it usually hits right when I’m PMSing. Therefore teething is to babies and their mommas, as PMSing is to wives and their husbands. Yes? It affects everyone.

Wednesday night out of no where (meaning, during the day and previous nights she’d be fine!), she was up THREE hours. 12-3am. Wouldn’t let herself sleep. So I didn’t get any sleep either, I spent my night rocking and rocking and rocking. I got 4 whole hours to be exact. This momma doesn’t do well on 4 hours, I don’t know how I made it, honestly. I figured out it was teething yesterday morning at breakfast where I discovered the swollen gums. Motrin is now my friend again. We still wake up a lot but that’s definitely better than 3 hours in a row.

That said, Halloween was great for us O’s. It was Savannah’s first time, obviously, as she’s only 8 months old and was gestating in my belly this time last year (sigh, time is going by too fast). I found Savannah adorable flower costume on ebay (also my new best friend) for $10 total, including shipping. It was the perfect size and in perfect condition. And it beat paying $30 for a nice costume she’ll wear ONCE. Yes, I win.

We just walked around our neighborhood, Mark and I taking turns carrying her. Let me just say that carrying her for a mile between the 2 of us, she got heavy, arms were sore and I’m out of shape. Some people got confused about her outfit and even her gender. Tell me, would you dress up your boy in a pink flower costume? I didn’t think so. Apparently I do, cause apparently I have a boy. She also got confused as wearing bunny costume, which, ya know, I can understand. It was an older man, probably not so great eye sight and her flower pedals could get droopy so only 1 or 2 would stick up. But a boy?

Oh well. We had fun and Savannah racked up some candy for us. I’m excited for next year when she can run around (less tired arms!) and get excited about things. This year she probably had no idea what was going on, but she certainly enjoyed taking in all the new sights and observing all the strange things going on.

Or maybe it was all to much for her, because she was up all night? Oh yes, that was the thrills of teething.

P.S. Check out the sky on Halloween! Quite eerily appropriate, eh?