• Well, we are hunkering down for a snow storm. How much snow we should prepare for remains a mystery.  Yesterday the estimate was 10-15.”  Then 8-12.”  Then 4-9.”  I stand behind my original estimate of 3-4.”  I hope the storm proves me wrong, because my camera is totally primed and ready for some magnificent snow storm pics.  We shall see!  I would love nothing more than to be snowed in with a few good movies and some hot cocoa this weekend.
• I am planning a weekend trip with my BFF, sans husband and baby.   The most exciting part?  The thought of sleeping in as late as I want for the first time in many, many months.  Ahhhhhh.
• I am realizing at this moment that I really don’t have anything interesting to share with you today.  I apologize for that.
• Because Grandma and Grandpa in Indiana haven’t seen pics lately, here are some shots of my kid.  (Taken with the 50mm lens.  I still love that lens so much.  I need to use it more.) 

Can I just say that this week may rank as one of the top ten most boring weeks of my life? Not that boring is bad; it’s just…boring.

Here’s what we’ve been dealing with, other than the historic flu battle and post-flu clean-up:

A baby who has forgotten how to nap. Ugh. My worst nightmare. Ever since returning home from our vacation, the child has totally lost her ability to go to sleep in her crib, whether for a nap or at bedtime. This mommy depends on nap time breaks throughout the day to maintain her sanity. The lack of naps has not been pretty for anyone.

I was lenient during flu-time early in the week regarding naps. Abs was held a lot for naps on Monday, which only fueled the fire. But by Tuesday evening, we had a screaming, blubbering baby whenever it was crib-time. So it was time for a little tough love, because I was quickly losing my cool.

For her Wednesday morning nap, I decided it was time to get back in her routine. I didn’t care how long it took-that child would go to sleep, on her own, in her crib.

After 20 minutes of standing in her crib and screaming, I went in, laid her down, patted her bottom, turned her music back on, and left.

After 30 minutes of screaming, I went in and laid her down again.

After 45 minutes of screaming, I started to second-guess the crying it out theory and turned up the volume on the tv to drown out the screams.

And after 53 minutes, she finally gave it up, laid down, and fell asleep.

It was the longest 53 minutes of my life.

Bedtime on Wednesday evening: only cried for 6 minutes, and I never went in again after putting her down. I was very satisfied with that.

Naptime today? Cried for Just a couple of minutes, then done.

Totally worked! I’ll be curious to see how bedtime tonight goes…fingers crossed we’ve gotten her used to sleeping again.

I hated hearing her cry…it’s really hard and breaks my heart, but I think it’s important for her to learn how to go to sleep without Mommy or Daddy holding her. She’s old enough now (9 months) that I’m comfortable letting her cry a while without feeling like it’s going to send her to therapy as an adult. Crying it out isn’t for everyone, but it worked for us…this time.

On another baby note, we resorted to putting up a mock baby gate while baby was feeling better but mom and dad were still a little sick, to avoid having to chase her away from the wood stove (which she is drawn to like a magnet).

So here’s our attempt:

And it worked for all of half a day before she learned how to crawl over the packed-up pack and play. Sigh. We are still using the barricade, because it at least slows her down, but I know it won’t last long. Oh well. We’ll enjoy it while we can.