Rollin on about 4.5 hours of sleep today and it’s not going great.

Our girl is going through some major changes and she has no love for her crib or for sleep in general.

Last night she went down at 7 and was up at 11:50 PM. She screamed in her crib for about ten minutes (my version of the Cry It Out method; right now 10 minutes is my max but that could all change very soon.) When I went in to her room and saw her standing up holding onto the rail of her crib, jumping up and down and screaming, her face beet-red and tear stained, I couldn’t stand it and I had to pick her up.

The instant I picked her up she started smiling and pointing at things around her room. She was ready to play and she would be damned if I tried to rock her back to sleep. The attempted rocking caused more screams. All she wanted to do was crawl around, get her toys, and pretend like it wasn’t midnight and she wasn’t a ten month old baby.

I gave in and read her a few books. Is this right? Should I be playing with her or is this going to make her even more confused and teach her that nighttime=playtime. Who needs to sleep? Not a baby that’s for sure. And definitely not a Ma that needs to be up for work at 6 AM.

All I know is that I wanted her to stop crying. So we read No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed 5 times. Most of the times were with my eyes closed but she didn’t seem to mind. We played with some teething rings, looked at a few other books, and I let her climb all over me as I sat slumped in the rocker. After about a half an hour I decided to try and nurse her to sleep. Another “no-no” I know, I know. She became groggy and I put her back in her crib about 1 AM. For some ridiculous reason I could not get myself down (ha) until 2ish. Ugh. 

She awoke again at 4 AM, furious that she had been tricked back into her crib.

A little after 4 I brought her into our bed where she thrashed around for a bit and, after nursing again, drifted off to sleep until 6.

She has GOT to be exhausted today. Can a baby really outdo an adult in a game of who can stay awake the longest?  Seeing that the routine I have just described has been going on for about a month now, the answer is yes. The baby always wins.