drive a momma crazy

Let me start this post by saying that my daughter (now 21 months old) has never been a great napper.  She arrived in our lives very alert and didn't sleep as often as most newborn babies.  We spent the first 6 or so months of her life getting used to the fact that she only slept about 30 minutes at a time. She went through a period where she would sleep about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, but shortly after we got used to that, when she was about 15 months old, she dropped her morning nap.  We struggled back and forth with the time she spent sleeping in the afternoon; sometimes she would sleep 30-45 minutes, other times she would sleep over an hour.

For the past several months, however, she has been sleeping about 75-90 minutes in the afternoons, and sometimes will play for another 30 minutes after waking up.  Until about 4 days ago. She has been throwing her blanky (the one she can't go to sleep without) out of her crib the instant she stands up.  She started doing it on wednesday.  She woke up after about an hour and instantly threw her blanket out of her crib.  And of course she cried.  So I got her up.  The next day, same thing.  On Friday, she slept for maybe 30 minutes, then got up, tossed the blanky, and started crying.  I left her in there for about 20 minutes, then I got her up.  Yesterday and today have been the worst.  She tells us she's tired, I put her to bed, then within 5 minutes, she is up and crying.  Yesterday she threw her blanket out, I gave her about 25 minutes, then I went in and gave it to her again.  I knelt by the crib, handed her the blanky and said "Don't throw it out again. It's time to go ni-night." and I left the room.  Screaming ensued, of course, and after about 10 minutes, my husband went in and got her up.  Today is an exact repeat, however we put both of her blankies in her crib with her.  SO far, she has only tossed the one.  We are trying very hard to stick to our guns here and not go in to get her up.  First of all, I WANT HER TO GET SOME REST, for crying out loud.   Second, we are both fans of sleep training.  It worked so great with her at bedtime - she has slept 12+ straight hours at night since she was 6 months old (minus one or two nights when she was sick) and goes to bed willingly since we started sleep training.  And we think the same principles apply at naptime.  If we keep going in to give her a blanky or let her get up or whatever, she quickly learns what to do to get what she wants.  But uugghhh, I'm really struggling here!  I'm not sure what has flipped the switch in her but I'm just so frustrated.  I will say that she has had a bit of a cold this past week, so that may play a part.  And she seems to go through small spurts where her daytime sleep gets severely out of whack for a week or so, then she gets back to normal.  So maybe this is a similar out-of-whack situation and I will be back to singing her praises next week.  But geesh.  Drive a momma crazy.  I will keep you posted on her sleeping patterns (or lack thereof) in the upcoming days.  In the meantime, let us remind ourselves how cute this sometimes frustrating little being really is.....

the stairs are one of her favorite hangouts

wearing her snow coat inside and posing for pictures with her cousin

cuddled in daddy's chair with her "big blanky" and some juice

even with stickers all over her face and disheveled hair, this stinker is one of my favorite things.