Lately it seems like we’ve been having more bad days than good ones. Belle has really been on edge, which in turn puts us on edge. Every time we’ve thought things were getting back on track it’s all been thrown off again. Tempers have been short; minds have been lost; a fresh patch of gray hair has made an appearance.
It’s been stressful, upsetting, confusing, and–frankly–annoying.
It all started Thanksgiving weekend. The holiday itself was great, but that Thursday Belle didn’t take a nap. That usually means that a night filled with people isn’t going to go over so great. However, she actually did really awesome. She was extremely sleepy, and spent a long time in grandpa’s lap, playing with her own hair (a signature “Belle is sleepy” move). We couldn’t believe how well she did considering the lack of sleep, and talked it up to ourselves when we finally got home that evening. She ended up going to bed fairly early, and mom and I got to spend some time together.
Then 3:45AM rolled around, and Belle decided it was time to start the day. This isn’t the first time this has happened. While most nights are decent for Belle when it comes to sleep, she’s also had plenty that are just complete crap. So, it wasn’t really a big deal that she was up so early. It was the holiday weekend, anyway. No work, no school, no biggie. She even fell back asleep somewhere around 6:30AM for a short while. Back on track!
But as the day progressed her attitude worsened. She only wanted to eat crap food, didn’t want to nap, and didn’t want to do anything we suggested. There were a lot of screams, and tears. By the time the night was over we were all exhausted. Belle fell asleep about 8PM, and that never happens. It was one of the roughest days she’s had in a long while. There was a huge sense of relief when her eyes finally closed, and we thought it was all over. But then 4AM came the next morning, and the monster was back.
Every day since then she’s been waking up early. A lot of times when she hits a streak like this it’s only a couple of days, but as of this posting we’re on day 11! Now, it has been slowly getting better. She’s going to bed closer to her usual time (about 10PM), and waking up a little bit later each night. For example, this morning she waited until 4:30AM to wake up, and about 5:30AM to start fussing until we actually got up! It was nice of her to let us relax a little longer. 😆
The exhaustion of everything was definitely taking its toll. We found that we were getting angry with so much, including each other. Your patience starts to wear very thin when it feels like you’re pushed to your limit every day. But like I said, things are slowly getting better, and back to normal. As I wrap this up Belle is playing in the sink like her happy, little self, quoting “Finding Dory!”
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