A portrait of sleep in my family every week in 2018

Sleep has not come easy for this girl over the past week. I can’t figure out what’s going on with her but it hasn’t been fun. She’s fought naps and sometimes bedtime, which isn’t really like her. She skipped her afternoon nap yesterday. Last night her sister and I went to a birthday party. She fell asleep while we were gone, but woke up right before we got home. I managed to get her back to sleep pretty easily but the second I tried to leave the room she bolted up. And then she was up until 12:45. And she was crazy. She was wild, she was unhappy, she was funny, she was miserable, and she was over tired. She almost fell asleep, or actually fell asleep numerous times only to wake back up at the slightest sound. I thought for sure all this meant she had to poop but she never did. Maybe she has more teeth coming through, but getting her to let me poke around in her mouth is basically impossible. I’m so worn out I feel barely human. There is literally not enough coffee. I had someone tell me she’s a “trained night feeder” this week and I laughed, because obviously, but that’s not even the part that I care about. She fought her morning nap today too, as she does anytime she’s over tired. Sometimes I think she’s transitioning to just one nap, but then she’s a total handful on the days she only gets one. Sleep consumes you when you’re a parent of small kids, that’s for sure. Even those parents who seem to have it down, absolutely at some point have or will put way more effort than they ever imagined into their kids sleep. I know this is temporary. I get that. They’re only little for so long, and I try to keep repeating that in my head. But that doesn’t make it any less exhausting.