Nap update

Well I got Stella to sleep without nursing her to sleep this afternoon, while Sophia is down for her nap and is supposedly quiet (she is in nap denial too today). I actually tried nursing Stella to sleep and it didn't work, so I tried on-the-shoulder dancing, which didn't get us anywhere. I tried her in the basket looking at the mobile, but that's in our bedroom where Jeff was napping and Stella was getting worked up so I then tried the swing, which makes her angry these days, so I held her in my arms and rocked her, my upper back pinging and sparking in protest (the muscles must be WEAK because I can never rock standing up for very long without lots of pain) and it worked. I transferred her to the swing with only mild protest. Will she sleep when the swing stops (30 minutes before you have to crank it up again (LOUD!)?

WHITE NOISE: i love it. I use it myself to help me sleep. Because Stella is still congested we run a LOUD humidifier all night too so she gets plenty of white noise at night. I guess it's hard because at this point I don't have a regular nap place. the swing is in the living room, which is the heart of everything and is chaotic when Sophia is awake. Our house is so small that noise is just about everywhere. Maybe I will do naps in the bouncy seat in our room (which is her bed while she's congested) with the humidifier on and the door shut so when Sophia goes past on her way to her room she won't hear as much. It's hard for me to shut doors - I like to peek in on them, and our doors are loud when you open them (and our floors are creaky too).

Sigh. I know that the most important thing is RITUAL and REGULARITY, but on those days when you are sooooo tired it seems so much easier to just nurse nurse nurse. Plus keeping Sophia out of the way when getting Stella into the bouncy seat... we shall see.