It's Like I'm the Mother Of A Newborn Again

This will be pretty short. However, I want to keep to my goal!!

Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been pretty rough for Aurora, Nathan, & I. Aurora, who has never been our best sleeper, has lately decided that she just can't sleep in her crib anymore. What's more, she just can't sleep through the night anymore, either. What's more, she simply has to fall asleep on Mama, and then she has to have Mama nearby for the entire duration of her nap/night's sleep. Needless to say, this has led to several nights of sleep deprivation, exhausted days, sleeping on the floor, sharing the bed with Aurora, and sporadic, hotly contested nap times.

I am not thrilled with this development because it is giving me some uncomfortable flashbacks from Aurora's infant days--the days when she wanted no one else but Mama 24/7, and wouldn't take a binky or a bottle, and couldn't even be cuddled to sleep by anyone else for several months. Some online reading has led me to believe that Aurora's currently undergoing a "sleep regression," which is apparently common for her age and temporary (yay), but which can still last for several weeks before straightening itself out (boo).

Today I finally hit a wall, since I have spent the week taking care of other sick kids (Lorelai had a fever for a few days & missed some school), getting ready for Sharing Time and preschool hosting duties next week, baking pumpkin bread loaves (more on that later), and generally dealing with piano lessons/ Halloween hangovers/life in general. Last night in particular was the pits, since it was a very windy, stormy night, and all the rattling gates/moaning windows kept Aurora even more alert and panicky than normal.

After getting maybe 4 hours of sleep last night (okay, I admit having that Coke in the evening didn't help me much), I woke up early to kids crawling on me, sawed some heavy branches off our mesquite tree, rushed to the LDS Stake Baptism, where I played lots of piano songs and gave a short talk, and then took Lorelai to a birthday party, where I spent the whole two hours sitting in a shady backyard (which was pretty cold after last night's storm), shivering & trying to stay awake and talk to the other adults present without looking like a weirdo. I eventually failed in this last thing; I had to go inside and fall asleep on our friend's couch for a few minutes!

I'm sorry if this sounds too negative or whiny. I love my daughter, but she can really wear me out! It doesn't help when your worst sleeper is also your most high-strung, stubborn kid. We have been waging a battle of wills all week, and it's made me wonder when things will ever get back to "normal."

Now, since typing all that has made me tired, I'm outta here.