I am very relieved to report that I completed my first writing assignment since L was born and ahead of the deadline at that. Woot! All done with the help of grandparents and making use of her naps/evenings. This not procrastinating thing is really quite neat. I can’t believe I hadn’t tried it sooner (she said while posting her blog 3 days late). And just as I thought I could put my feet up with a glass of wine and binge on Netflix, followed by a worry free night’s sleep, my 10-month-old started teething. I mean it seems to be teething. She actually has yet to produce a tooth–a bit of a late bloomer in that department–so I’m just going by what I’ve read and my sister’s keen sense for these things. I defer to one or both of my sisters for most of my parenting advice, which is generally foolproof. Oh and the internet, obviously.

Anyway, 3am is not my ideal wake up time, as you might imagine.

The first hour she just played happily (kind of obnoxious when all you want to do is curl up in bed. Remember how it’s 3am??), the following two she laid on my chest and watched Sesame Street (super adorable? Of course! Would I rather be in my bed asleep? God yes.), screaming anytime I tried to put her back in the crib. And then finally (miraculously!) she fell asleep and I was able to put her down and grab a couple more hours rest. Not the worst night in the world, per se, but the past several days have been a series of short sleeps, late nights and missed naps.

She spent a couple nights–including the last–in bed with us when we were too exhausted to fight it. And as lovely as cuddling up to my baby can be, it does not make for a restful sleep. Your arms fall asleep and you’re constantly adjusting throughout the night. And L is a very “active” sleeper too. She somehow managed to inch her whole body across mine so that she was lying diagonally across my chest when I woke up this morning.

Thank goodness my husband was home. He works out of town part of the week and I am definitely the default parent, so it’s weirdly a relief when these things occur on the weekends. Those late nights feel a lot less lonely. And she wasn’t miserable the whole time by any means. She’s a pretty tough little lady and was still able to have fun hanging out with her cousins, grandparents and her auntie. She was mostly bouncing off the walls, actually. It’s just that nothing seemed to get her to sleep without an epic battle. And I’m just so damn tired myself…Thank goodness for tempra.

My superstitious side can’t help but feel this is my punishment for getting too smug about her sleep schedule. How dare I think I’d figured it out! I should know this by now…I guess I should be grateful this didn’t happen while I was on a deadline. Small miracles, right?