So very tired....

I have come to accept the fact that babies can get over-tired. A state, as crazy as it sounds, in which the baby is so tired they cannot fall asleep. Genevieve, if she misses a nap and has an exciting day, will get over-tired. This means that at the next scheduled nap time we'll do our darndest to put the fussy one into a food coma. There is nothing like a warm bottle of milk and some vigorous rocking to put an over-tired baby to sleep. Unfortunately that also means suffering through about 10 or 15 minutes of whining as she fights off the sandman. With each passing minute the whines get a little less confident and there are longer pauses between them. That is, until that damned gardener with his two-stroke leaf blower decides there is something in the driveway just beneath Genevieve's window that requires his immediate and undivided leaf-blowing attention.

*sigh*

However, as I said before, I have come to accept this. What happened last night was by far the strangest thing I have ever witnessed. Genevieve was so over-tired that she woke up from a deep sleep only to refuse to go back to bed. What!??!

This weekend was full of a lot of firsts for baby G. For the first time she hung out with some other babies. Some younger, some older, all smaller. Though, there is a one year old, Ava, that is giving her a run for her money. Genevieve was interested in the other babies but there wasn't much in the way of playing. Being true to form she did try to eat a shoe. For the first time she went swimming. (pictures posted soon) She enjoyed splashing in the pool though sometimes she would splash so much she would startle herself and have to take a minute to recompose herself.

All this weekend excitement lead to an over-tired baby. After a long day she passed out in the car on the way home. We took her up to her room and left quietly. This was about 10:00, only a little past her normal bedtime. She fell right back asleep as soon as she hit the mattress. Carrie and I readied ourselves for bed and also went to sleep. At 12:30 AM I hear a loud crash followed by screaming. This wasn't the normal I'm-bored-come-get-me-out-of-my-crib screaming this was the wake-the-neighbors-because-nobody-is-sleeping-tonight kind of screaming. Genevieve was shrieking her head off and kicking her crib toys as hard as she could. No pacifier was going to do the trick on this one. Even picking her up and bouncing her which can normally calm her in seconds didn't phase this child. I felt so bad for the neighbors that I shut all the windows. She's never screamed this loud this late at night before. After about 20 minutes of calming her she was finally back to sleep.

We went back to bed only to have her start up again in less than 5 minutes. We tried tylenol; we tried feeding her; we tried playing with her. I even pulled out the Baby's first year book to see if it mentioned anything about this. Nothing. Screams like you wouldn't believe. Eventually she calmed down enough for us to put her back in her crib. But again, 5 minutes later we were back to square one. This eventually went on for an hour and a half when Carrie had the bright idea to put her in her vibrating chair. Ahh, the soothing vibrations of her rocking chair. Within 5 minutes she was passed out and we put her back in her room. We left the chair running all night and she slept later than she has slept in weeks. I actually woke her up at 9:30 because we didn't want it to screw up the rest of her day. Which it did anyway, but that is a different story.

Seriously...what is wrong with this child? She was fast asleep yet because she was overtired she woke up and would not go back to sleep. That is the most preposterous thing I have ever witnessed.

Needless to say, I'm very tired. I wonder if that means I won't be able to sleep tonight.