two steps forward...one step back

No I am not singing a Paula Abdul song...I am talking about my day the other day with the lovely Miss A.  Just when I thought we had a "routine" going, just when I bragged to a friend how great Avery was doing putting herself to sleep and napping, just when I thought I could count on doing something for me during those "scheduled" naps, she proves me oh, so wrong!

It started with the morning nap, or lack thereof!  She couldn't put herself to sleep, I tried to help; it didn't help.  She might have slept for 10 minutes out of the 45 she was in her crib crying and fussing, with and without me standing by her side.  And from here on out the day was a disaster.  Naps were incredibly short and she was increasingly more tired as the day went on.  And we all know that a tired baby is a fussy baby.  And really, fussy just doesn't cut it when it comes to describing her mood that day. 

I thought for sure it was the 3 month growth spurt.  I started to panic.  I was having flashbacks of the 3weeks-8 weeks time period when all she did was cry and eat .  I thought we were through with all this needing to be held 24/7, crying constantly for no apparent reason and being a generally unhappy baby.  You have to understand that for the last 2-3 weeks I had fallen in love with my daughter all over again because she starting to interact with me in ways other than screaming.  She was cooing, smiling, laughing, playing independently on her playmat, and hanging out in her bouncy chairs for large chunks of time (which of course means I was able to shower, put on real clothes, put on make-up and get a few things done around the house, and this made me feel like Wonder Woman).  So to go back to this fussy period again was too much!  I actually called the husband and told him, "If there was ever a day where you were going to come home early, this would be the day to do it!"

I called a friend, who has 2 boys, ages 4 and 1, and she said it is always, "two steps forward, and one step back!"  And the hard part is not knowing how long the "one step back" is going to last.  Turns out that the "one step back" only lasted one day.  That was on Wednesday and yesterday we were back to "routine" napping again.  Thank God!  So no growth spurt, YET!  Maybe this was just Miss A's way of prepping me for what is yet to come.

Oh, motherhood!!