The child who would not sleep

I mentioned at the end of my post a couple days ago that I thought Sierra would go right to sleep after such a busy day. But I was wrong.

No, she is a real life "Energizer bunny." Seriously, I do not know how this kid does it. She just keeps going and going and ... well, you get the idea. But that night that we arrived, there were new surroundings and new people and she just would not go to sleep. Finally, I just put her in the room we were staying in and closed the door (we had just arrived, so she had not yet learned that she can open the doors in my parents' house because they are the pull down kind rather than the turn kind of knobs). She cried for a few minutes, but then I didn't hear anything, so I figured she had gone to sleep and went to check on her. Well, she had fallen asleep, standing up, leaning against the bed. I guess she had gotten out of bed and then decided she wanted back in and couldn't climb up. So, there she was, on her two feet, quiet with eyes closed.

I tried to move her up to the bed, but of course she didn't stay asleep. Oh, no, that's just not how my child rolls. I guess that five minutes of stand sleeping was just enough to recharge those everlasting batteries. Finally, it was after 9:00pm (after 10 back at home) and I just gave up and went to bed with her because I figured that was the only way she would go back down.

Let move on to last night. Grrrr. Sierra was sleeping in the portable crib (finally). My dad went in the bathroom (same hallway as the bedroom) and shut the door too hard. Sierra woke up, stirred, cried a little, but then quieted and I figured she was going back to sleep. But, then, dear ol' dad, came out of the bathroom, went into his bedroom and shut that door (right across from the bedroom we're in) way too hard. BANG! That was it. Sierra was up and crying. For the next TWO AND A HALF HOURS. When she woke, it became clear that I was going to bed, but that wasn't the end of it this time. I tried getting her back to sleep in her crib, brought her to our bed, put her back in her crib, turned on the side lamp so she could see us, turned it off so it would be dark ... Nothing worked. She finally wore herself out about 1:00am.

Today, she took a quick nap this morning, about 45 minutes, was a total pill during our lunch date, and then fell asleep for a half hour in the car on the way home. Jason suggested just leaving the car running and letting her sleep, but I figured she would be tired enough that I could just nurse her and she would go back to sleep. Wrong again. I was hoping I could get a little nap in, but no such luck. Sierra spent the first 25 minutes nursing and the next 25 minutes crawling all over me while I tried to get her to nap and get some sleep myself. Finally, I gave up. It is now an hour since and Jason is still napping and I'm a little resentful.