+ Bad evening, Good night? +
I was at my wits' end last night. You were under some freakish spell or something. We played for a while, then you went down for a late nap as usual. I know it's odd and most babies don't do it (most parents probably think I'm nuts), but you take a very late nap. It's like pre-bedtime. You go to sleep usually around 5:30 or 6:00, nap for a while, wake up to eat dinner and play one last time, then down for the night around 8:00.

About 20 minutes or so into your nap, I decided I was annoyed by the crooked wall clock in the living room. My attempt to straighten it failed as it stuck just enough to the wall to cause it to come flying off and shatter on the tile foyer floor. Well, besides scaring the hell out of me, Daddy and Princess, it woke you - screaming - out of your nap. Okay, fine. Nap over. No problem, right? Wrong.

I went in and fetched you, and brought you and your binkie out to the living room to wake up. Only you wouldn't. stop. screaming. Period. You didn't want the binkie, you didn't want to nurse, you didn't want to be held, you didn't want to be put down, you didn't want to play, you didn't want to sleep... Nothing. Finally, fed up, I decided you must be hungry. So I strapped you in the high chair and got out some corn and sweet potatoes baby food. Yeah, that was interesting. YOU WERE ASLEEP! Screaming, but asleep. And did you know that a screaming, sleeping baby can STILL eat?! You ate like you were starved, but never once - through TWO jars of baby food - opened your eyes. Not once. I had to recline the high chair because your head kept falling forward. But you were eating! And if I didn't have another spoonful ready in front of your face when you opened your mouth, you just screamed.

So, I fed you. Then I took you to your room to change you for bed - still screaming/sleeping. At this point Daddy (who'd been desperately trying to get some homework done) came out of the office and said, "She obviously doesn't want to go back to sleep." *crickets chirping* My response? "She IS asleep!!! She's BEEN asleep this whole time!" Sure enough, you continued to sleep-and-scream while I changed your diaper and changed you into your pajamas. I turned the light off, sat with you in the rocking chair and rubbed your back and your hair until you stopped crying and truly fell asleep. It only took a few minutes.

Then you slept quietly through the night.

You woke once at about 5 a.m., with one yelp/scream and that was it. You stayed asleep until about 6:45. You probably thought last night was just a bad dream! Ha! When you finally did get up, you were perfectly happy - hyper, even (as you usually are lately). But you've been gnawing on your fingers like crazy. I'm hoping you're just teething. It also might be your ear infection, though I really hoped the antibiotics would be working by now. They might work better if I remembered to give it to you every time. Oops.