Sleeping Tiger

60% of the time, my daughter is a sweet, adorable, agreeable child. And then, there's the other 40%, always always triggered by her sleep schedule getting knocked off. It's like our life together is like a soothing, satisfying record of Bach cello concertos. Then kid skips a nap, and life turns into Marilyn Manson... irritating, full of conflict, robbed of joy.

That's a little harsh. There are breaks of sunshine in the clouds (man am I metaphorical in this post). It's just hard for me to appreciate them when running on just a few hours of fitful sleep. My fuse is short, and MJ is on a mission to test every boundary in front of her when she's on these sleep hating binges.

I'm not even sure what happened this week. Her naps got pushed way back, from 12:30 until 2. After a day or two of this, she then started fighting her bedtime. Finally, the death nail: the dreaded 3 am wake up. And I mean UP.

It's on these days (like today) when parenting with patience is so very difficult for me. I would never raise my hand to my little baby, but I'm sure as hell tempted when she's making a run for the throne. All my parenting and discipline ideals go out the window on these days, and it's all about survival.

I sound kind of hyperbolic here, but I can't express how my child's personality completely changes during these sleep disruptions. It takes me a good 5-7 days to get her back to a normal sleep pattern after this happens, but I know it will end. Eventually. I'll have a newborn in the mix in February to make things really interesting.

WAIT WHAT!? DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME STARTS TONIGHT?!?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHY GOD WHY?!

This is the face of a child on Day 2 of a sleep strike. It looks like we're gonna have a long haul until her eyes are no longer purple.