...and another parental milestone is reached: the first major screwup

We knew it was coming, that time when we would finally pause, look on the last 10 months, and have the realization dawn on us:

We seriously messed that one up.

A relatively consistent undercurrent has been running through these posts from day one--our little girl isn't a big fan of sleepytime. We tried to ignore it, we tried to pretend it would fix itself, but we can no longer escape the fact that Eden doesn't sleep well. She doesn't sleep well with us and she definitely doesn't sleep well without us. It's a problem that's been getting slowly worse every month. But, much like mildew in the shower, we were able to ignore it because it didn't seem all that bad at the time. It could always be fixed later, when it got really ugly.

Well, guess what: it's really ugly (Eden's sleep habits, not the shower mildew).

It's all come to something of a head this week; Eden won't fall asleep when we use any of the old tricks, she won't stay asleep once she finally does nod off, and she's made everybody in the house (including herself) absolutely miserable. When Baby ain't sleepin', ain't nobody sleepin'. It took several consecutive days of fighting Eden's sleep demons--and mainly losing--for us to realize that something needs to be done, because what we've been doing obviously isn't cutting it anymore.

In our defense, we didn't really know any better. I mean, seriously, who knew you had to teach a kid how to sleep? Well, just about every baby manual ever written, for one, although that doesn't do us much good since we gave up literacy a couple minutes after college graduation. And probably our parents, for another, who raised their own kids (us) and figured this stuff out eons ago. And, okay, maybe our friends with kids, who have fresh memories of how these things go.

Alright, you've made your point: we screwed up.

So once we get back from Christmas in Colorado, it's time to start from square one with a new sleep regimen. I can't imagine we'll get much sleep during the initial stages--but then, that's not
much different from what we get now. Just with more, you know, temper tantrums.



p.s.--I tried to find some pictures of a sleeping Eden to go with the topic, but since she doesn't sleep, there really aren't any. As rare as sleep is around here, you'd think we'd snap all kinds of sleeping pics and, I don't know, leave them around the house to give Eden ideas or hoard them like gold or stare at them on especially bad days to remind us what sleep actually looks like, but there you are. Instead, I thought I'd put up some shots to trick you into believing she's actually a little angel.