Lights In The Tunnel

I remember being totally overwhelmed when Sarah was just born. I cried every night. It was an experience that can only be brought back to my mind adequately with the addition of a new baby. But this time around I'm less emotional, thank goodness. Although the lack of sleep causes a lapse in logical thinking and that is my downfall. I've always had a tendency to "catastrophize" things. Make things seem like end-of-the-world stuff versus the little stuff they really are. Last night Allison cried herself to sleep. I came to Joel with tears in my eyes asking if Sarah was this young when we started that endeavor with her and he assured me that yes she was, possibly even younger. That was enough encouragement that I could do it.

If her crying had gotten progressively worse as time went on I'd have gone in. In fact I did. I went in once, rocked her, nursed her (to make sure it wasn't actually hunger causing the crying), talked to her, held her close, changed her diaper...nothing, still grumpy and awake but oh-so-tired. So I loved on her, lay her back in bed, and within 15 minutes the crying had stopped. 15 minutes instead of hours trying to nurse her, rocking her, crying (me AND her)...

I'm hoping the last few days have been sort of a response to my salad eating (seems to upset her tummy) but if it's not and we have to let her cry it out, it's going to be a long few weeks. But Sarah is no worse for the wear. In fact she's the best sleeper ever and I'm even more grateful for that now that Allison is here and needing some good night-time attention.

On a cheerful note...Sarah had a blast playing in the sprinkler yesterday. I've never known a child to actually love standing RIGHT NEXT to the sprinkler head. It was cracking me up...I got some good shots of her that I just love! Enjoy!