Sleep Struggles

After my last sleep post, Erin made a liar out of me. She continued to sleep well at night, going to bed between 7 and 8pm and only waking once or twice just to eat, then sleeping through until about 7am. But all of a sudden, she stopped napping during the day. I read all the books again. I tried putting her down sooner, putting her down later, nursing before nap, not nursing before nap, covering the curtains so that it was darker in her room, etc. Not a thing worked. Erin was so cranky! Most of each day was spent trying to get Erin to sleep, during which I used the TV as a babysitter for Leah, which I HATE doing. In addition to the madness, Leah has also recently mostly turned her back on naps. So to have no napping in my house with a cranky infant was driving me crazy! I can only imagine what I would have been like had Erin not been a good night sleeper.

On top of all that, Mike decided to take on another lawn project. We got a truckload of topsoil dumped in our backyard so that he could spread it over some seed to hopefully grow us some grass in the backyard. But a truckload of topsoil is a crapload of dirt. It meant that he spent a lot of yesterday morning hauling dirt while I had another fun-filled no-nap day with the girls. At about 4:30, I came out crying with a crying Erin and said "This is not okay!" I told him I needed his help with the kids on the weekends, especially with both of them not sleeping, and I was upset that he had decided to spend his weekend digging dirt. He quit for the afternoon to spend time with us. He said he hadn't realized how I was feeling and how hard it was. So that was better.

On a funny note, last night Mike said to me, "I tell you when you do stupid stuff, right? Why didn't you tell me that spreading a truckload of dirt was one of the stupidest ideas I ever had, right after trying to sod my own yard?" Apparently it was lot more work than either of us had anticipated. We are about 1/3 of the way through the pile as of noon on Sunday.

So to end on a happy note... Last night, we put a cranky Erin down at 7:45. She woke up to eat at 2:30, then again at 6am (old time). After the second feeding, she talked to herself in the crib for like 20 min or so, then proceeded to sleep until 9am (new time)! She was back in her crib by 10:15 and is currently still sleeping in there! We just might have broken that nasty sleep cycle with a new wonderful one! That was 3 exclamation points in a row. Can you tell I am excited?!?!?!?!