10:00 p.m. bedtime?

I'm getting overly frustrated. Since we got back home from Jacksonville, Florida near the end of July, Annabelle has been struggling with going to sleep at a decent time. I think it has something to do with her realizing that her Daddy would be traveling full-time again (before I or her Daddy even knew). She pulled this trick back in February, March and April, and I finally decided to let her cry it out when she was 18 months old.

Well, now it is a completely different struggle, and I am getting more and more frustrated every single night. It has become a vicious cycle, and just when I think I've figured her out again, she decides to let me know that I'm wrong!

She normally wakes up anywhere between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. She goes down for a nap every day by 2:00 p.m. (sometimes 2:30 p.m.), and I try to wake her up between 4:00 and 4:15 p.m.

Well, today she woke up at 8:45 a.m. We had breakfast, and I then got her dressed so we could go to the library. I had planned to leave the house by 10:30 a.m., but as usual, Annabelle was on her own schedule, and I was lucky to get her fed, dressed and out the door by 10:45 a.m. She fights me tooth and nail to get her diaper changed and to get her dressed. She cannot stand to have her diaper changed any more. But, yet, she is very anxious to change her Baby Adie's diaper (and brush her teeth). Which, by the way, she fights me every day and every night when I try to brush her teeth. This is so very frustrating when hubby is out of town. It takes forever to get anything done!

So, this evening, we finished eating dinner around 6:45 p.m., and then we played and cleaned until 7:45 p.m. She had grabbed her paci and Teddy at this point, so she seemed like she was getting pretty tired. I've already come to the conclusion that bedtime needs to be later, so I shoot for 9:00 p.m. now. So, from 8:00 p.m. until 8:45 p.m., I dressed her for bed, brushed her teeth and read her at least 5 books that I can count from memory. I laid her down in her crib at 9:15 p.m., and I left her in her crib as she asked me once again to "durse, mama, durse." I told her that she had already nursed, and she had her chance, but I would be back to check on her again in 5 minutes, and if she still needed to nurse then, that she could. Of course, she's crying at 9:17 p.m., so I nursed her, and I then laid her back down. I tried to use my new method which worked for only a few days to tell her I'd be back to check on her.

To make an already long story short, I left her room at 10:15 p.m., and it is 10:41 p.m., and she hasn't cried again. However, when I had checked on her last, her Fisher Price Aquarium had died, and she was crying because she wanted it "back on, mama." Does anyone know what a pain it is to change the batteries in that thing? I had to pull the crib out from the wall, find the screwdriver (which I had to call hubby to ask the whereabouts), unscrew the plate, and then find D batteries. Naturally, we didn't have any D batteries that actually worked! So, I had to persuade Annabelle to let me sing to her instead. I don't want to get in the habit of singing her to sleep, so I sang two songs, and I then told Annabelle I'd be back to check on her later this evening. Hopefully, she will be asleep when I check on her again!

I should mention that when I told Annabelle that the Fisher Price Aquarium was not working properly because it needed new batteries that she stood up and pointed to the plate on the back of the Aquarium where you change the batteries. She knew where the batteries needed to go because she saw us change them last time. It is amazing the things they pick up on. She hadn't used that Aquarium for a long time until just recently (over the past several months) when I decided that I needed another crutch since lying her down to let her fall asleep on her own just wasn't working any more. I guess I should have made sure I had more batteries on hand, huh?

So, my days and nights seem to become one when hubby is out of town. This is very frustrating to me because I feel like any spare time I have needs to be spent cleaning (while Annabelle is sleeping). Hence why I haven't blogged in awhile.

And, I know a lot of people think I should wake her up earlier in the mornings. But, believe me, I've tried many different times and methods. It doesn't seem to work with her. Even when she wakes up early, she still stays up late! So, that leaves me with even less time to do those things I need to do while she's sleeping, so why bother to wake a sleeping toddler early in the morning, especially when she's not a morning person? That's another wonderful trait she got from her mother! She's never been very happy in the morning. It takes her awhile to get going. That probably has something to do with why I cannot get out the door in the morning before 10:30 a.m., and 10:30 a.m. is on a great day!

So, I'm trying to be patient as I know I have another month and a half (at least) of dealing with a toddler on my own who doesn't like to sleep, Monday through Friday! I'm trying to stay positive. I am just very thankful hubby still has a job! I know deep down that this "shift work" was actually a blessing since work had been so slow for him for many months. Let's just hope that work in the ATL picks up again so that he'll be home again full-time after the New Year!

Not to mention, I know that traveling is really tearing him up inside because he doesn't want to leave "his girls" on Sundays. I try to also remind myself to be thankful that I'm not the one traveling. As he told me this past Sunday, "Jenn, I know you probably don't feel this way, but you really do have the more fun job." Well, he said something like that. I am sure I probably quoted it wrong. He was saying this because I get to enjoy all of her silly moments. Of course, I think I enjoy these moments more when he's around at night because it gives me an opportunity to watch them play together.