Your not the boss of me

the battle has begun- i guess for me it took to the point of complete exhaustion to be so desperate and beaten down to give in to letting her cry it out in the crib. after an hour of her screaming last night at 2am we laid her down at about 3:30 and let her scream...and she did - but thank goodness only for 17 minutes and then she was out until 5:30. but of course i laid wide awake in bed waiting for her to make a noise, and of course she fell asleep with her face buried in her blanket and her leg through one of the railings so i was so worried she would somehow stop breathing! no one said this would be easy but there is something that seems sooo wrong about letting your poor little baby cry herself to sleep when you know she just wants you....but, alas, i have not slept for more than 2 hours straight in 9 months, she is sleep deprived, i am sleep deprived, brad gets better sleep on the road flying, and even winston has been begging to let me let him sleep on the porch at night to escape the madness.
we had emmy's 9 month doc appt. on friday and this is what started it all. she is doing great - 74% percentile for weight, 49% for height, but my baby is sleep deprived. i was confused as to why she consistently gets up at 4:30 but it's because we are keeping her up until 8 which is too late. we were letting her take a late afternoon nap at about 4, not okay. i guess there is a rule (where is my handbook) not to let baby's nap past 3 in the afternoon....and the doc says baby's bedtime should be between 6 and 7....last night we put her down at 6:45 which seemed to work well for her. I will just have to make sure she is home and ready for bed by about 6:30 from now on. no more pushing the envelope.
i want to be able to enjoy a summer evening now and then, and work while she sleeps. i love my little girl and this is going to be the best for all of us.. it just may be a painful week :( but we are currently on nap #1 of the day in the crib and this time she only cried for 7 minutes so that is progress i think??? hopefully she'll sleep for an hour at least???
i hope we can do this so she can begin overnights at paula's house! she got a crib so that will be perfect! and i can start living again!!!
here are some pictures from yesterday. we ran a family 5K. Emmy and Brad won of course :) and then we went out for breakfast at cobblestone. brad hung a hammock in our yard and i cant wait to lay out in it with the baby monitor in my hand and enjoy a sunny afternoon! aaaahhh....i think this may be the start to something wonderful! if i ever do this again...i will definitely be doing things differently from the start....emmy gave my the staredown yesterday and you could just tell she was thinking she was the boss of me....but the winds are about to change and i'm taking back this house from my little 3 foot dictator! (even if she's adorable)