Hey Innernets

I think we got some birthday pics - honestly I haven't looked at the camera yet. ALSO - I plan to get some professional (olan millllsssss!) one-year shots done, but Iris has a big ol' rash all over her nose/chin area from being sick recently, and apparently she head butted something pointy yesterday at school and speared her lip. We're waiting for all that business to heal a bit more before I schedule the appointment.

HOWEVER. This is not why I am posting today. Today, I am asking for advice.

Iris goes to sleep between 6:oopm - 7:30pm. Usually on the earlier side of that range. There is nothing to be done about that. If you try to keep her awake, she falls asleep sitting up, and collapses on the spot. This will be the kid who falls asleep in her dinner someday, I am sure of it.

So, she wakes up once around 10pm - 12am, which is when we usually bring her from her crib to sleep in our bed. Sometimes she can be tricked back to sleep in her crib at that point (since she's been sick it's been increasingly difficult to get her back to sleep at this time, but I have faith that things will return to normal soon). Basically though, a non-sick Iris can be cajoled back to sleep with back pats and quiet voices in the 10pm - 12am time range.

At 3:00am. Iris wakes up like, hard. Every day. She is loud and boisterous and usually completely flooding out of her diaper. She wants a bottle, and she wants to SHOUT. She dances on our faces, and pulls on the curtains, and waits till we fall asleep again so that she can pour her bottle out on her stuffed monkey. Sometimes, after an hour or two of shaking down the house, she will fall back to sleep when one of us tucks her into our sides and demands that she quiet down and close her eyes. It doesn't usually work, but sometimes the timing Gods smile upon us and she sleeps for another hour or two. Again, this is very rare. Most of the time, if she is going to sleep more, it will happen about five minutes before the alarm goes off. Magical.

Does anyone have any advice at all as to what we should to about the 3:00am wakehard? You can tell me to make her cry it out, but I am telling you that there is not a corner of the house remote enough to get us away from the sound, so that's really not an option (see? Not a push over; not a softie; just really like my sleep enough to not have it interrupted by sounds of dying baby). Besides, if this problem isn't solved by the time I get more vacation time, Iris is in for some serious baby boot camp sleep training. This request for advice is my attempt to solve the problem amicably, before I bust out the big ear plugs and send Kyle away for a few days. You know, so I can break her tiny little spirit with no witnesses. (insert maniacal laughter here.)