Exhausted

Ok, that doesn't even begin to explain it...but I'm quite tired.

Let me first say that I'm so sorry for being a bad blogger friend to all of you. I'll be back...sometimes...and hopefully soon. I'm not neglecting anyone on purpose. It's just I have very little time these days, and what I do have is devoted to Riley and sleep :-)

So, I've survived the first 2 weeks back to work. Riley has also survived her first (almost) two weeks of daycare. I've had my tears from missing my baby girl, and Riley has already had her first runny / stuffy nose. We are still trying to figure out a schedule that works for everyone. It's hard since now we only get about 3 hours of awake time each day with her. We want to make the most of that time, but we also have stuff that needs to get done (like eating). Her sleep schedule is what I'm most concerned with currently.

Before returning to work, Riley had gotten to where she would sleep 5-6 hour stretches when we first put her down and then a 4 hour stretch after that. I LIKED that! This week that has turned to a 4 hour stretch, followed by 2.5hrs and then 1 hr. Still, in infant terms this seems to be pretty good...she's thriving after all. Her mommy, on the otherhand, needs to find some better under eye makeup! Maybe she's getting up because she wants more time with mommy and daddy? Maybe it's because she sleeps too much or too little at daycare? I just hope that something evens out in the next week or so. I so want her to sleep longer for my sake - I've been toying with the idea of "cry it out". Thing is, I just don't think I can do it. I tried one night for about 20 minutes, but then my DH gave in - or he just told me to give in. He can't stand to listen to her cry either. Plus, there seems to be something so wrong in doing it after all we went through to get her here.

I read a book about a no cry method, and I'm trying to do that now. It focuses on getting her to fall asleep in her crib rather than my arms. I was successful tonight. I left her mostly asleep in her crib, and now she is out! It took about 30 minutes of singing and patting and bouncing the bed...but hopefully it will pay off.

I know I need my sleep because I can feel myself being cranky! Does anyone else get that way. It's like you can feel the mean thoughts and words and looks creeping up, but you just can't stop them. I warn my DH, but that seems to make him taunt me more - he's a bit of an instigator :-) So, I should probably go to bed now. I'll be up in about 4 hours...or hopefully later than that.