Last Night

"Perhaps," Andrew said as we finished our second game of Mexican Train, "If we clean up quietly and then sneak off to bed, Rachel will just sleep on through the night."

Rachel has never ever gone to bed this early but, figuring it was worth a shot, I nodded my head.

We cleaned up the dominoes, hushing each other incessantly, and only dropping a piece or two. Then we tip toed down the hallway. Just as we were passing Rachel's room she let out a tremendous wail stopping us dead in our tracks. We waited to see if it was one of her "sleep cries," but alas, it wasn't. She wanted to know why she was stuck in her crib when she wasn't even tired yet, and she wanted to know now. The girl has lung power, I'll tell you that.

Reluctantly, I got her up. We tried cuddling her to calm her down, and then I fed her while lying in bed. Nothing doing. Her twenty minute power nap had completely rejuvenated her energy stores.

This was unfortunate for me because my energy was running pretty low. I can't decide whether having her not be sick is a bane or a boon. I'm sure having a sick baby isn't a lot of fun, but having a very energetic baby when you're sick isn't exactly a treat either.

Last night Rachel didn't even begin to settle down until after 11:30--and I wasn't egging her on, either. She was just very energetic. She was pushing up, not on her hands and knees--no, that would be too sensible for a baby her age--she was pushing up on her hands and feet! Sorry, no pictures because it was late and I was sitting on the couch exhausted and couldn't bring myself to walk all the way to my desk where the camera was sitting...but Rachel was being quite the acrobat. She looked like she was doing a yoga-esque "down dog" position. Of course, she'd promptly fall over as soon as she got up, but it was still pretty crazy to watch.

Finally, right around midnight she was calm enough that she didn't start screaming when I put her in her swing. She fell asleep shortly after midnight, but then woke up around 1 o'clock. I fed her and then put her in her crib where she stayed, relatively peacefully until 5:20 when our alarm clock went off.

Andrew had a final at 7 AM today and so we had an early morning. Rachel typically sleeps through Andrew's comings and goings but today she woke up with the alarm, bright eyed and bushy tailed, much to my chagrin. I spent the next hour convincing her that, since the sun wasn't up yet, she shouldn't be up, either. I'd like to pretend that I was patient all night long, but I was not. In fact, I was quite impatient with Rachel. Go to sleep, baby, go to sleep!

She fell asleep in her swing again and we both slept until 10:30. I'm going to try to not let her nap at all today and see if I can't get her to go to bed a little earlier tonight. Wouldn't that be nice, and unusual?