[Un]Sleeping Beauty

Oh man, where to start?! As many of you well know.... Brenleigh hasn't exactly been a good sleeper from the start!  It has just been in the last 4 months or so that she's been consistently sleeping through the night.  Well, last night, for watever reason she awoke at 11:30 just wailing! She fussed around a bit then fell back asleep for a short bit, only to wake up wailing again at 11:45!  This cry was definitely different than her usual middle-of-the-night cries for Mama or Dada, so I went rushing in, thoroughly expecting to find her on the floor outside of her crib.  She was, however, sitting up in the middle of her crib bouncing on her bottom and screaming bloody murder.  So, I picked her up and proceeded to rock her back to sleep in the chair.  {Since she was about one, we have come to realize (painfully so....) that if we go in there in the middle of the night, we can rock her all we want (even up to 2 hours we tried in the past!) and she will fall into a light sleep, but not a deep enough sleep that we can lay her down.  The minute we either stand up from the chair or lean over the crib, she starts to cry and scream "Noooo!" Then she ends up crying for a few minutes until she falls asleep on her own; so we've come to conclude that we're better off just letting her cry or fuss for a few minutes withOUT going in there instead.} 

Well........ I rocked and rocked AND ROCKED her for about a half an hour when I realized that, darn it, it would be no different than other nights and there was NO WAY she would go back to sleep for me.  Well, occasionally I have slept with her (she and I both sleep WAY better alone than together, but sometimes extreme circumstances call for extreme measures, and a midnight you'll do anything just to sleep, righ Mamas?).... so I headed for the spare room.  I turned the door handle, and what? It was locked! My in-laws were spending the night, and aparently needed both spare rooms! Shoot.  Well, now what? It's midnight.... I can put her back into her crib and let her figure it out and wake everyone.... or I can try one more thing. 

You guessed it! I walked over to the crib, put her in (and she of course started screaming, until she realized....) and then I climbed in with her! {Man, I was wishing I had a camera too!} She was thrilled.  Didn't make a peep.  She laid right down, and (so I thought....) tried to go to sleep.  I laid there, all curled up next to her, and she rolled, tossed, sat up, (redirected) laid down, rubbed my face, sat up, (rdirected) laid down, rolled over, sat up, (redirected) laid down... Finally at 1:15 and after several stern statements to go to sleep or else Mommy would have to go back to her own bed, I had had enough.  I realized that she was winning the battle.  So, I calmly got out, gave her a kiss and told her to go to sleep and I loved her, and I left the room.  She screamed and screamed!  She cried or about 20 minutes or so and then finally, at about 1:45 conked out for the night.  Needless to say it was a short night for all of us!

Well, I am praying that tonight is better................... ;) Sweet dreams.