letting her cry

It's been a frustrating couple of hours. Evenings are notoriously her worst time of day. She hasn't been as fussy lately in the evenings as it was in the early weeks, but she still has her days, and tonight has been one. She's usually up for an hour after a nap and then she's ready to go back to bed. But in the evenings she stays up a little longer, because she doesn't sleep as long during the nap before that. Well, today she woke up at 5:30 pm, but wasn't supposed to eat until 6:30, so we entertained her for an hour. That wasn't too bad. But at 6:30 she didn't want to eat. She wanted to fuss.

After letting her fuss for awhile we tried again. This time she ate a little, but then didn't want anymore. She decided it was play time. So we played peek-a-boo with the burp cloth; I'd cover her face up with it and then take it off and say, "Boo!" She started talking and squealing every time the cloth would touch her face. It was very cute. But after about 15 minutes of that game, she got bored and started fussing again. She had been up for two hours by that point, so I took her up to bed. Protesting ensued....steady screaming for 15 minutes until I rescued her and rocked her and sang to her. She quieted down, but didn't go to sleep.

Once she was calm, I tried to put her down. Another 15 minutes of crying..... I got her again. This time I tried to feed her the rest of her bottle--she devoured it (in my arms, mind you, not on the floor like she usually insists on eating, which was very strange!). That calmed her and she began staring into space like she sometimes does before drifting to sleep. Back to bed she went....another crying fit. That's where we were in the story when I began this post--listening to her cry. But after a few minutes, I stopped writing and went in and patted her back and rocked her cradle, and she's finally drifted off to sleep. WHEW!!! Are you as exhausted reading that play-by-play as I am? I doubt it...I lived it.

Hopefully she'll be asleep until 1 or 2 AM. No, let me rephrase that. Hopefully she'll sleep through the night, but most likely she'll sleep until 1 or 2 AM. That's her usual routine: bedtime until 1 or 2, awake to eat for half an hour, then back to bed until 5 or 6 in the morning. But one can always hope..............