So I thought I had it figured out: two hours after waking up (usually sometime between 9 and 10am), Savannah would go down for her morning nap. I would read her a book, nurse her, swaddle her, give her a paci, and then she’d sleep for 2+ hours. Repeat for afternoon nap. Bedtime at 11pm. All good.

Then this week something changed. This week Savannah decided that napping is for sissies and she wasn’t going to partake. I don’t know if this coincides with her ear infection – last Monday was the first day she stopped napping and also the day we saw the doc and started her on amoxicillin.

Now the routine is: she gets fussy. I put her down for a nap, following same routine as before. She usually falls asleep but wakes up anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour later. Then she’s wide awake and in a fairly good mood until the afternoon when she gets fussy and we try again with the same results. Then she is SO cranky in the evenings. But any attempts at nap repeats are met with the same results. She doesn’t have problems GOING to sleep – she has problems STAYING asleep. Bedtimes are still completely normal, she doesn’t seem to have a problem there.

The weird exception is last Wednesday, we went to a friend’s house. I laid her down, same routine, and she slept for 3 hours. That was the last nap she took.

I’ve tried swaddling and unswaddling her. I’ve tried laying her in the pack n play, on our bed, and in the co-sleeper. I’ve tried laying down next to her (you can imagine my disappointment when I realized that I wasn’t going to get that nap!). I’ve tried getting her to go back to sleep after she wakes up.

Also frustrating is the past few days, she’s decided she hates her bouncer and she really would prefer to be in our arms. And she likes us to be walking around. Which as you can imagine gets old reaaaaaally fast.

Oh and if possible she would like to take all naps in our arms. Cuz she will sleep there. But once you put her down you have 15-20 minutes, tops, before she wakes again – and that’s assuming she didn’t wake up when you laid her down.

In short, I’m exhausted. And stressed. It’s hard to get things done when she is awake all day and wants to be held. And I am about to go crazy with this lack of alone time (my introversion coming out).

Any ideas on keeping baby asleep once she’s down?

Oh and another reason for my tiredness – I can’t seem to sleep at night. I am so exhausted when I fall into bed, but then insomnia takes over and I lie awake until 2 am or later.

So… tired…

Last weekend, I noticed Savannah pulling at her ear a lot. I wasn’t sure if it was a sign or something, but I noticed she seemed very insistant with the ear pulling right before mealtime, so I assumed it was her signal that she was hungry.

On Sunday, we noticed that there was a lot of drainage coming from that ear. I called my mom, who confirmed that it was an ear infection. My siblings got them a lot as babies/toddlers, though I never did. I called the doctor who asked me all sorts of questions about other signs/symptoms. Really, besides the ear pulling, there wasn’t anything else. She wasn’t especially fussy and didn’t really feel feverish. The doctor recommended I bring Savannah in first thing Monday morning.

So poor Savannah; she had to go to see the doctor. She really hates being poked and prodded! The doctor confirmed the ear infection, and gave us a prescription for amoxicilian (I probably spelled that wrong). We have been giving it to her twice a day since Monday. It’s been challenging! She has never gotten anything except breast milk and formula, so this medicine stuff is new to her. And she does NOT like! About 75% of the dosage actually gets in her mouth. It requires a LOT of patience!!

I read somewhere that you can tell if your child is ready for solid foods by their tongue thrust. If you try to give them something other than breastmilk/formula and they immediately push it out of their mouth with their tongue, then you know they aren’t ready. Well Savannah definitely has the tongue thrust down! (Not that I was about to give her solids yet.)

Tonight she was very fussy and messing with her ear a lot. I felt so bad, poor baby! I gave her sone infant Tylenol which she took a lot better than her medicine. I tried to take her temperature to see if she had a fever, but I don’t think the thermometer was working. She had a temp of 99.7 at the doctor’s on Monday, and the doc told me to call if the temp reached 100.4 or higher.

My first sick baby. :-( I hope her ear feels better soon!

This year it’s going to be different.

I always say that. And my resolutions are usually forgotten by the end of January. But yet, I keep making them. This New Year’s is no different because I really need to make some dramatic improvements in my life before I get too far down this spiral.

My resolutions are the same as everyone’s, I suppose. Lose weight. Take charge of our finances. Be more responsible. I’m trying to create actual steps to achieve these goals, and focus on the steps so that I don’t get too frustrated.

Weight – I’d love to lose 25 lbs in 2010. Since I’m breastfeeding I’m not going to mess with my diet too much. I’m going to cut back my Coke consumption, stop eating if I’m not hungry, and focus on healthier snacks. I’m going to go on daily walks with Savannah around my neighborhood.

Finances – Be faithful to the budget. Use cash for areas I tend to overspend (food, misc). Stop paying retail. Save, save, save – we have so many upcoming expenses we need to save up for!

Responsibility – This is more focused on my current job as a homemaker and mother. I have a list of 7 daily tasks I want to aim to complete every day. Paul and I have made a “tackle box” – a list of small, free or cheap things that need to be tackled around the house. We are going to try and tackle one a week. I hope this helps keep me motivated! Perhaps talking about it on my blog will help with accountability.

I think having a written to do list will help with these goals, and also using the timer on my iPod Touch will keep me from being overwhelmed. I need to take better advantage of Savannah’s naptimes – too often I spend it doing nothing!

Any advice for motivation? What are your goals for this year?