This is getting old

I love love love my baby.

But I hate hate HATE the crazy lack of a sleep routine (and simple lack of sleep)! I think I've mentioned it before (not sure, my brain is so foggy right now), but this girl can either sleep 5-7 hour stretches (and on Friday night actually slept 8 in a row -- 10:30pm to 6:30 am -- it was shortlived bliss, I tell you!), or -- more usually -- wake up every three hours and be up for an hour at a time.

We had a wonderful weekend with three really good nights in a row, and I swear I thought we had turned the corner. Then this week -- BAM! -- back to sleep deprived Mommy. This is leading to grumpy Mommy and short-fused Daddy. No one is mad at the baby -- duh -- but we feel helpless and confused and not sure what is right and what we should be doing differently.

So the bottom line is, I guess we are going to start "sleep training" soon. I feel weird about it. We will not do the total "cry it out" method, at least not at first, because I just would worry too much, but we may have to do some kind of graduated method. The problem is, how in the world do you know if the baby really needs you vs. just wants attention or whatever? I need to do some more reading (and I have already done a LOT of reading).....!

Anyway, I know sleep training at all can be controversial, so I ask you not to judge. This is all a work in progress, and I feel differently on different days (like this one, where I am so fried I just don't know how I'm going to get through the day). But at some point, non-functional parents are not going to contribute to a good child-rearing environment, and I think that's the bottom line. That said, we have a bazillion visitors coming through in the next 3 weeks so we probably wouldn't even start anything till after that (right around when L.will hit 4 months). I am hoping against hope things will at least get a little more... regular... by then. Otherwise Mommy is gonna go off the deep end!