Pictures and Problems

For those of you who just want to see pictures, I will post them first. If you care to know about the problems read on...

Eating her first "apple". This was a childhood toy of Erics. It has a bell in it and is heavy hard plastic. I feel sorry for our neighbor as she repeatedly likes to drop it on the floor.

Playing super man, didn't get the smile in the picture but she loved it!

She is holding her bottle all by herself



Picture we took as part of a Father's day gift for my father-in-law. One of her cutest to date!





Now on to our problems.

I am now suffering, I think, from extended sleep deprivation. Or maybe I'm just mad that we had a sweet spell of about 3 days in which she was sleeping 8-10 hours at night and so-so naps during the day. Then she got sick and then she starting cutting tooth. Life has been full of miserable sleeping patterns all over again.

She won't sleep more then 2-3 hours at night and sometimes wants to wake up for the day at 5am. This is not acceptable to me. And now she only catnaps in my arms after a daytime feeding. As soon as I put her down in the crib she is either immediately awake or is awake in about 2 minutes. Oh and the crying. More often then not, if I'm not sitting right next to her, talking to her while she lays on the floor she will be crying for me. Sometimes even if I'm sitting there, talking to her, she has toys in both hands, she is still "complaining" at me for something. I know, I know,  I know she is tired! But when I pick her up to cradle hold her and rock her to sleep she screams bloody murder like I'm hurting her or something. She screams like this so often that she makes herself hoarse and her cute little coos sound like a little lions growl. It is so sad!

So all of this makes me feel like an awful mom. Not only can I not get my child to sleep or keep her from crying, I also can't get any of my housework done so we live in a mess. There is a book that everyone keeps telling me to read called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I've had it for a long time but haven't been able to read it. I am, however, going to give it my best shot because I mentally cannot do this anymore. I know am a good mom and I love my baby so much. These last couple of weeks have just been really, really hard and I'm trying to get a grip on it. She can and she will sleep, I just have to learn how to train her to do it again.

I am tired, I am frustrated, I am spending way too much time on FB just to feel like I have connections with people. So I am going FB lite for a little while. Just a step back so I have time to reading the sleeping book, so I have time to do more couponing, so I have time to actually do my devotions and pray everyday. My priorities haven't been the greatest in the last 4.5 months so I am doing my best to make those changes.

Looking forward to better, more rested, days to come...