The Increadible Shrinking Bedtime

I have been trying to find a happy medium with Abby. She usually gets up around 8 am. If she takes a nap, it's usually 2-3 hours in the afternoon. She can't sleep again until around 10 or so. I have tried putting her in a dark room and just leaving her there. She will cry or scream or play or get up and come out until around 10 o'clock and then drop off. It's tough. During the summer, we tried no nap. She would hit the hay around 7 pm. Now she can't make it that long anymore. I'm not sure if it's because there isn't the excitement here in Montana that there was with her cousins around or what but she will sleep whether I like it or not around 12 or 12:30 after her lunch and stay that way until around 3. She is going to be about 8 pm and actually going to sleep. We have had so many different routines that it's hard for me to determine what is the best. Anyone else have trouble with their kids sleep patterns? Does anyone have suggestions?

Randomness...

Yesterdays weigh in: 176.5 which means I gained half a pound and lost all hopes of ever getting out of the 170s.... for about 3 minutes. Then I bucked up and got onto the Weight Watchers website and totally rededicated myself to getting the weight off. I need to have a meeting with Jillian. (I have illusions that people are reading these weigh-ins and routing for me like some Ruby wanna-be. LOL! Style - here I come. I could have a great show called Mission Impossible: Losing Weight While Breast Feeding and Potty Training. Subtitle: ...and working and being a wife and keeping up a house and several hobbies.)

Abby went down semi-easy for her nap today which does not reflect the insanity of last night. I put her in bed and she got out and I put her back and she got out. She claimed she had to poop and after previous incidents, I wanted to give her at least the opportunity to poop IN THE POTTY! She discovered that this was a way to get out of actually going to bed so... then it was a game. She gets out of the bed, is put on the potty, is watched like a hawk and then gets put back in bed screaming that she is being scarred for life and totally over the whole bed "thing." So after an hour and fifteen minutes of that, I almost lost it. I let her know, in no uncertain terms, that getting out of bed again would be a grave life altering mistake and she would regret it well into her teens. In the words of Bill Cosby, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out, AND I can make another one that looks just like you!"

I realized recently that the picture on this blog is way out of date. It was taken in November of 2009 but I have a good reason. I had a picture taken of the family in the hospital right after Cate was born. It shows me as a puffy, drugged up insomniac and although I posted it, I will not use it as my banner. I had pictures of us taken at a party and you can totally see my bra and a bit of breast pad hanging out through my somewhat sheer shirt that didn't like flashes. I will not even post those... I'm hoping to get some really good shots in a couple of weeks when a pro photographer is going to be in town and has agreed to take my money and make me look like a rock star. I REALLY need to get back with Jillian Micheals before that. I have to go... I need to work out before I eat everything in my house...