Must be the super moon

Holy super moon-craziness, blog world. Something really weird is happening with Cecelia and I think I'm going to blame the eerie super moon (although I don't even really know what that means). Because there is really no other explanation for this insanity.

CC was pretty fussy after daycare on Monday, but we chalked it up to being tired and put her to bed at 6 pm. I was a little nervous about veering off our bedtime schedule of 7:30ish but sister obviously needed to be asleep and not awake. Also, Lori put CC's hair into a pony tail at daycare that day and it make the mane extra crazy when I took it out. See also: generally grumpy baby with hilarious hair.










Ibuprofen was had prior to this early slumber and I marveled at how angelic she looked curled up like an infant in her crib. I then Instagrammed this shot saying that she's still my sweet little baby, blah blah blah. Blissfully unaware of the drama that was to happen next.



I should mention that Nate has been home on Monday and Tuesday of this week, off of work since he was out of town all weekend long at a course. THANK THE LORD he has been here these past two days or I might have seriously lost.my.stuff.

Anyway, Nate, Truman and I were just hanging out downstairs after CC went to bed. I was doing my paperwork from working that day, Nate was complaining about how hot it was in our house (after installing one of our window AC units that day, but trying to will himself to install the rest), and T was enjoying The Brave Little Toaster on Netflix (one of my favorite movies from my childhood!). And then? CC woke up and it was only 7:50 pm. Uh-oh.

I went up there and figured she was confused, thinking it was nap time and not night time. So I nursed her again, rocked her, sent her sleepy vibes through my laser eyes. But nothing worked. She was fidgety after about 20 minutes of relaxing with me and after 40 minutes of failing this attempt at a return to sleep I gave up. Tried to let her fuss a bit in her crib but um, no---sister wasn't having it. At all. So I figured it was early enough that I could bring her back downstairs and revisit the bedtime thing shortly since I still had a lot of paperwork looming over my head and Nate would just have to help me watch her.

She was happy playing with toys, munching on cereal, and drinking some milk. She seemed wired, totally not tired. Truman went to bed around 8:30 and sister was still all amped up. Nate fell asleep on the couch at 9 and she remained awake. Happy with sudden bouts of crying, mini-temper tantrums on the floor, and general discontent. Flip flopping between being our happy CC and being some other angry child. But awake. Still awake at 10 freaking pm. And 10:30. I told Nate just to go to bed at that point because I wanted to be entirely sure she was tired enough to go to bed before I tried again.

At about 10:45 I took her upstairs and Nate was installing Cecelia's window unit AC. Maybe she was too hot and that's why she wouldn't sleep? Immediately upon walking into her nursery she began freaking out. After Nate was done with the AC I tried rocking her, giving the pacifier, nursing....but all she would do is push me away. With aggression. Diaper clean, Ibuprofen still not ready for another dose, fed, clean, etc. So whatever, I figured it was time to let her cry.

And cry she did. No wait, it wasn't 'crying' that came from her nursery. It was full on, bloody hysterics. Like, gives-you-the-chills screams from my baby. She did not sound like herself. She did not sound like a baby. She sounded freaking possessed, you guys. Nate and I looked at each other after about 5 minutes of listening to CC shred her vocal cords and gave each other perplexed looks. What.The.Eff?

So I went back in there and tried everything again. She clawed at my face. I brought her to our room. She kicked me in the head. I started to lose my cool because COME ON kid, it's time to sleep and not physically assault your mother. I took her downstairs and laid her on the rug and let her thrash around to get the demons out. We had our family room windows open and I was seriously concerned that someone would call the cops. More attempts at hugging, cuddling, feeding, ANYTHING and nothing worked. Finally she just sort of crawled over to her toys and started playing again, whimpering and whining through the puffiest/saddest baby eyes ever. I literally made a list of what could be happening at that point. Nothing seemed to fit.



Nate came downstairs at 11:15 and asked if we should take her somewhere. And oh man, you KNOW it's bad if my level-headed husband was questioning the severity of the situation. I knew in my heart that she was probably teething or overtired or just dealing with super moon vibes and did NOT want to take her to the ER. I just wanted her to sleep. So I just started walking with her, around the house, over and over and over. I had a little flashback to when I was in early labor with Cecelia, wearing that same path in our floors. Ah, how times had changed. Little girl was giving me hell again but I still had that moment of clarity when I realized I wouldn't trade it for the world....even though she was being a beast.

Eventually she settled down into my arms, resting her head on my chest. She would not allow me to sit down, however, and was only calm when I was standing and moving. Was she a newborn again? Possibly. She wouldn't allow me to lay her down, either. My back was cramping up from holding my one year old for so long but it seemed to be working. And at 11:45 pm I laid her in the crib and stumbled to my bed.





Want to guess what happened next? At 4:45 am she was awake. @#*#@*. Words can't explain how tired I was after only 5 hours of sleep, and it was one of those interruptions in my sleep that felt like I had been laying there for about 5 minutes total. I made Nate try to rock her back down but within 30 minutes I realized that wasn't going to happen. So I took over and nursed, rocked, pleaded with the girl. We stayed in the glider until 6 am because she was mostly calm but not asleep and I attempted to drift off here and there. But then we went into my bedroom and I remember saying to Nate, 'I think I'm going to die I am so tired.' I mean, five hours isn't THAT awful but when you are used to getting at least 10+ hours from your baby, five seems pretty horrible. I tried to rest my eyes in our bed. Then I heard Truman call for me right as Cecelia slammed her head directly into Nate's head.

She started the wailing cry again and I picked her up to get sweet Truman from the next room, the beloved child who actually slept all night, and the look of shock on his face when we entered made me cry. He was still half asleep but looked seriously concerned as his sister screamed bloody murder at 6:15 am. He said, 'It's okay, CC. Brother is here,' and that's when I lost it, too. Oh, my sweet boy. And what was wrong with my girl? Nate took over with T and I heard him ask if Truman had heard CC crying last night. 'No daddy, I slept fine! It's okay.' OMG, too much, more tears. Cecelia was settling down again and I figured I better pull myself together stat. And coffee seemed to be the best idea in the entire world, obvi.

The little wild card seemed pretty content once we were downstairs. She was quiet but hungry and ate her breakfast like a champ. Then she was off to play like nothing strange had happened. Went down for a nap at 8:30 and slept until 11:30. Which is three freaking hours, in case you didn't know. Then she took another epic two hour nap this afternoon, so napping for five hours = insane. Somebody must have been tired from her shenanigans last night, huh? Overall I'd say that she seemed back to her old self today and I'm sure the napping helped greatly. Nate and I took shifts napping, too.



So we will see how tonight goes. I still have no idea what the problem was last night but it was freaky and horrible and maddening. My top guesses are: teeth, being overtired/out of sorts, and the super moon. But one thing I know is that Nate will be on his way to get a vasectomy if sister keeps this up for long, so any talks about a third will be inevitably on hold until we regain our sleeping status. ;)

Sleep is awesome. It's hard to have a really awful night when you get used to so many good ones. I hope it was a fluke and tonight is better. The end.

{UPDATE: The next night was a million times better. She slept from 8-6 without a peep. Keep it up, baby girl!}