Friday, January 06, 2006

Today started out badly, but ended up being pretty decent. Last night was bad, bad, bad. Emma spent most of the night crying to nurse and tearing at my shirt. I wanted to spend most of the night crying because I was so completely exhausted. This morning, I finally gave up at about 7:00 a.m. I certainly didn't want to get up then, but I didn't want to give in and let her nurse, so we just got up for the day. Bleh. However, it turned out to be not so bad. You can accomplish a lot in a day that begins so early. Who knew?

So besides cleaning Emma's room, doing three loads of laundry, baking cookies, making 30 burritos, cooking a double batch of chili, vacuuming, sweeping the kitchen and bedrooms, and doing the usual daily chores, I was also able to play a lot of "kitchen" and take Emma and the dogs to the park. The weather was so nice that after we played at the park, we went for a two-mile walk. Emma was in the Mei Tai and it felt really good to get a little work-out. We haven't been going on walks since it got colder, but I think we'll start up again.

I have a new plan. (Why does it seem like almost every day I come up with some sort of new plan?) We are going to have a bedtime routine for Emma and really stick to it in hopes of getting back onto a more normal sleep schedule. Plan goes: bath, massage, stories, night-night. Tonight her bath started at 8:40, I started her massage at 9:10, we all got into bed and read a few stories at 9:20, lights out at 9:40, hopefully to be asleep by 10:00. The last part didn't go exactly as planned, but she did finally fall asleep at 10:45. Not too bad for the first night. Tomorrow we are getting up at 8:00. Now here's the tricky part. I let her nurse while she was falling asleep. I think I'm going to concentrate on this schedule thing and then maybe then work on the night weaning. I'm giving it up for now partially because I don't want to suffer through any more nights like last night, and partially because I think there must be a reason why she is nursing so much. Maybe a growth spurt, maybe teething, whatever, but I'm going to trust her little body to know what's best for itself.

Oh, and I got some yarn in the mail today! Woo-hoo!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your new plan sounds pretty sound. I hope it works out.

Anonymous said...

I hope so too, Honey.

Katie said...

haha! I never know what to do with myself when I wake up early!

I'm sorry you guys are having such a hard time. Hopefully it's just a stage and will pass. Bree seems to go thru phases of nursing all night. Wishing you a good nights sleep!