Exhaustion

I've chronicled Willow's napless ways on here, but I don't think I've mentioned that for the past couple of months, she is sleepless at night as well.  There have been reasons for this, like a cold, and then molars, and then another cold, but between the nighttime awakenings and then daytime refusals, she has been a hot mess.

As have I.  Because everything is a vicious circle, she clings to me when she's tired.  Which means that napless days are spent, essentially, carrying her around being comforting, while she rubs my ears.  And nighttime...well.  Nighttime is spent lying next to her in my bed while she rubs my ears and pleads for milk.  And, eventually, snores, and rubs my ears in her sleep.  My ears are beginning to have raw spots behind the lobes.  And because I get everything she gets tenfold, I am also sick.  Again.  And can't get better because I can't get any sleep. 

She won't let Dave comfort her--she'd rather he left and went to go sleep on the couch.  I just keep him around for milk-fetching purposes, poor guy.  When he does try to take over, she screams bloody murder until finally I give up and then it takes me that much longer to get her back to sleep.

This is EVIL.  There is no other word for it.  There are moments, after a particularly rough night, when she's all "hug me mommy, let's not take a nap, let's read more stories.  I know your voice is gone, so you'll have to shout, okay?"  At those moments, I think she might maybe be a demon.

Okay, not really.  But I do kind of wish she wanted to hang out with someone else for a little while.  I'm only writing about this because she slept through the night last night, and is currently napping, and so while I don't by any means think that she'll sleep tonight or nap tomorrow, I feel like I've been granted enough of a break to deserve a bit of a venting.

As soon as this cold's over, as soon as I have the energy, I'm taking her down, man.  It's on.  Let the Sleep Wars begin.