Need....To....Sleep....

An exhausted mother's plea:

Rachael, I know you still have a stuffy nose from last week's illness, and I know that is the reason behind your severely confused sleep schedule. But I beg you: PLEASE SLEEP TONIGHT. Momma is about to fall asleep at her desk at work because you haven't let her sleep for, oh, about 6 days now. Two hours at a time is just not going to cut it. You're a big girl now and big girls sleep all through the night.

I type this, baby girl, while you are blissfully sleeping away the afternoon at daycare. Do the right thing tonight, though--give momma and daddy at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Love,
Your Over-Tired Mom

Yes friends--it really has been about 6 days since David and I have gotten anything resembling a decent night's sleep. This situation might have been acceptable when I was on maternity leave and could (hahahaha) "sleep when she sleeps" (do people really do that? I did laundry when she slept). Anyway, perhaps this is payback for having a baby who, at 4 weeks old, slept about 8 hours at night. In any case, Rachael is on day four of her antibiotic treatment for the infection she had (we all had some sort of evil sinus thing), and she's still dealing with the nasal fallout (literally) of the illness. I wish she knew how to blow her nose!

I know she's just uncomfortable and--worst of all fates--unable to comfort herself with her Binkie, but David and I both feel like the living dead the last few days. We find ourselves trying to reason with her in the middle of the night ("c'mon Rach--don't you want to feel well rested in the morning?"), which is kinda pathetic, and we are breaking all of the rules we learned in the Baby Sleep books we've poured over. We're offering her food (big no-no in the eyes of the Baby Sleep experts), we've picked her up and rocked her until her nose clears (another no-no)...but as soon as we put her back down, she starts to howl again. And yes--we've tried putting her in her carseat and her swing to help her sleep more upright, but she won't tolerate sleeping anywhere but on her tummy these days.

And so I close this post sounding as desperate as I feel. Mr. Sandman....visit our house tonight!

Sweet Dreams to All,
Kristine