Prayer Request

I have so much to be thankful for on this Thursday night.  We had a great Christmas, David and I had a wonderful date last night and today while his parents kept Audrey, and tomorrow I get to celebrate my birthday with my two favorite people on earth.  However, my mother's heart is struggling this evening.  For the past several weeks, we've had serious sleep issues with Audrey.  She has been a model sleeper since nearly day one and has slept through the night with clocked regularity since five months of age.  Her bedtime and sleep routine were set in stone and her sleep schedule was unbelievably predictable.  However, the past few weeks have been horrible.  With very little exception, she's taking an hour or two to fall asleep, with fits of crying and calling us back.  Then, she wakes up anywhere from one to seven times during the night crying for us.  On top of that, she's waking up earlier in the morning and napping shorter in the afternoon.  We've done a myriad of things to try and fix this and today, while she was away, David and I spent almost an hour mapping out a plan to handle this that we are going to consistently stick to come hell or high-water.  Well, let me just tell you as I was lying on the bathroom floor with the doors closed to drown out the noise, bawling and praying while David stood outside her door consistently and sternly dealing with her as she was screaming her heart out for me, it was hell.  


I know there could be a multitude of reasons for this behavior, but my top two guesses are excitement about Christmas and anxiety about the new baby coming.  Of course, we've played our part by going back to her again and again and thereby reinforcing her behavior.  Regardless, it has to end before this entire household goes insane.  And before we add a newborn and all the sleep depravity that comes with one to the mix.   


So please, please pray for her and us, dear friends and family.  Pray for wisdom and the discipline to stick to our plan.  Pray for peace for her and patience for us.  Pray for SLEEP.  For having you to ask that of,  I am thankful.