rollercoaster

Life is feeling like a total rollercoaster lately. There are some predictable parts of our day, like Mimi going to sleep between 5:30 and 6 every evening. That works out perfectly, because we have dinner with Delma at 6 and we can eat with her and hang out with her and put her to bed without being distracted by the baby. At around 9pm we give Mimi a bottle and put her back to bed. But that's all we can count on with this baby. Some nights she sleeps til 3-4am before she needs to eat. Sometimes she's up at midnight and then again one or two more times. Some days she takes good naps. But some days, especially if I spend much time outside the house, she does not nap well -- she HATES the car and will scream like she's getting stabbed for the whole car ride, no matter how long. It's maddening.

There is also Delma's problem with waking up as early as 4am some days. We started taking away privileges, like her binkies or her Supergirl costume (which she has still wanted to wear every day since Halloween), unless she stays in bed in the morning until Josh or I comes in to get her. It finally started working, and for 4 days in a row she hung out in bed and waited patiently for us. It was great. But then today she was back to her old tricks, so who knows.

It's all really beating me down.

Then this past Saturday I had exactly the kind of day I needed. Mimi took a really long morning nap. Delma waited in bed for us, then had a nice morning. Josh took her out to play and I stayed home while Mimi napped, and I got to do some baking. It was calm and lovely. In the afternoon I went out with just Delly to buy her some new shoes. It was a nice change to be alone with her. It was all just what the doctor ordered.

Since then our days have been all wonky again of course. I'm looking forward to going back to work soon and having more structured days.