Rough day at the office

Apparently I've jinxed myself with my last post, because today was the Day From Hell. Actually, it was really only the late afternoon that was bad, but it was bad enough to render the whole day the Day From Hell.

It all started with the lack of nap. Baby Jane did nap, but not nearly as much as she normally does. And if there's one thing we've learned about Baby Jane, it's that she needs her beauty sleep. I held out hope that she would be tired enough to take a late afternoon, pre-dinner snooze, but no such luck. Oh sure, she was tired enough, but in denial about that. So no nap.

The result was that I think I spent about 4 hours straight dealing with a crabby, super-clingy baby. She would not let me put her down. (Thank god for the sling!!) She would not let me out of her sight, not even for a minute. I tried all my tried-and-true tricks; nothing worked. She didn't want to play with her favorite toys; she didn't want to swing in her swing; she didn't want to bop around in the exersaucer. She just wanted to be held, and to walk around. It was almost like she reverted back to her former, just-born self---we spent many evening hours walking around and holding her to calm her down during her first two months. Thankfully, Mr. Jane put her to bed to give me a bit of relief. Otherwise, I might have lost it.

The funny thing is that I'm not so much physically exhausted as I am mentally exhausted. I feel the same way as if I'd spent a really long and hard and tiring day at school---like during midterms or finals week (or after an especially trying encounter with my colleagues). It's not like what I was doing was mentally taxing! Or was it? Maybe trouble-shooting Baby Jane's extreme neediness is more mentally challenging than I'm giving it credit. At any rate, I'm too tired to analyze that at the moment.

I sure hope tomorrow's an easier day.