So, if you have read my blog for any length of time you know that Ainsley is not the best sleeper. You know that we have struggled to get her to go to sleep, stay asleep and sleep in her crib. You've read my guilty rants about the "cry it out" method and my new found hope in the "no tears" way. Well now I'm here to say that it's all total crap. I've decided that if I really want to make my millions I should just write a do-it-yourself, teach your kid to sleep book. If I ever get Ainsley to sleep on a consistent basis, I am publishing that IMMEDIATELY!!!!
Ainsley goes back and forth with sleep. She started sleeping through the night on a fairly consistent basis in October - she was 15 months old. So all you mommies out there that whine about your babies not sleeping through the night at 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 months...come, visit me for a few nights. Feel my pain! Seriously, I'm just kidding. If I've learned one thing about being a mom, we should not judge. Every mom has her own special way of coping. It's not an easy job. Anyway, we started travelling the weekend of Thanksgiving. We were all over the place for 6 weeks straight. During that time Ainsley was actually pretty good about sleeping, but she got very used to sleeping with us or in the car or in her stroller or on the couch...anywhere but her crib. So fast forward to this month, we've been home the last 3 weekends and don't have any travelling plans. This girl will not nap, will not go to sleep, and when she finally does go to sleep it's for a very short period of time.
This first reared it's ugly head when Ainsley was home sick about 2.5 weeks ago. I was home with her all day and she would not go down for a nap no matter how hard or what I tried. Clif came home around 2 so I could get into the office and get a few things done. I came home that night to a little girl passed out on the living room floor. Now, you may not think that is such a big deal. We've all seen the videos or pictures of the toddler snoring in his cereal, or drooling on her drawing because the little tot is so tired he just can't stand up any more. Ainsley is not like that. She is determined to stay awake at all costs and she has never fallen asleep. Ainsley must be put to sleep, lulled to sleep, rocked to sleep...there is no falling about it.
The even funnier part about the longest nap in history (she fell asleep at 5 and woke up the next morning at 7), is that at 10ish that night, she sat up, opened her eyes and cried. I pulled her up on my lap and instead of calming down she just cried louder, pushed me away, then crawled back to the floor where she snuggled up with the pillow and went back to sleep.
The child is insane.
