Better

Olivia's sleep was back to normal last night...12 hours without a peep. I don't know WHAT was up with her the night before. She just woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. After unsuccessfully attempting to get her to lay back down in her crib, we laid down on her big bed together. I held her tight (so she wouldn't squirm), and then I sang to her. She would lay completely still and calm and listen to me singing until I fell asleep, and then she'd start climbing on me. When my husband got up at 5:30 a.m. (thankfully, it was the one day this week that he had to be up really early), I turned on the lights and took Olivia to the living room, where she ran around playing as if she just woke up after a full night's sleep. An hour later, after breakfast, she was rubbing her eyes and melting down from overtiredness. *SIGH*

So, yeah, I don't have any answers for that. Maybe her nap was too long that day or something. It was just weird.

We both went back to bed around 7:00 a.m. and got up at 9:00 a.m. This was a shorter nap than usual, but the timing was way off too. Instead of figuring out how to entertain her at home for a whole day without a break, we decided to run our errands. It was the nicest day of the week, so the timing was good. And my sleep-deprived toddler? WAS AN ANGEL! She was so well behaved all day. She sat still in shopping carts and patiently let me hold her at other times. This was a welcome change from her usual struggle to be free to run. After we got home and had dinner, we (literally) chased her around the backyard until dark. She went to bed without a fuss and slept like a dream, even through the stormy weather that blew in with our cold front.

I woke up feeling like a new person. I had forgotten how sleep deprivation affects my mood. That was the most difficult part of having a newborn (and one of the biggest blessings of having a sleep-loving toddler).

Well, I have to cut this short. The aforementioned toddler insists that she doesn't need a nap today and just climbed out of her crib to tell me that.