Day-time Drama.

I wasn't fooling myself into thinking I would wake up and suddenly this would all be easy, but I thought that, by now, I'd be getting the hang of it. Everyone tells you that you'll learn to recognize your baby's cries like her own little language, that parenting will become second nature, that you'll fall into a routine. Everyone also says that the unexplained fussiness will start to become less and less, that your baby will become more predictable.

Well, no, no, no, no and no. On all accounts.

I feel like I'm actually getting worse at anticipating Adelyn's needs. She just seems restless the past few days. She's hardly content for more than ten minutes at a time. Out of nowhere she's become one of those babies that refuses to be put down. (At first, I was struck by how independent she was--she was just fine falling asleep on her own and staring at her own fingers.) Now, the second--literally, the second--our hands leave her body she's screaming.

Jason and I have gotten better at coping. One of our favorite ways to deal is to make up songs. A lot of the time Adelyn will quiet down if you sing LOUDLY right in her face (sounds cruel--but I swear she loves it). We've created our own rendition of "'O Holy Night," that goes a little something like, "'O Addy Belle, your cries are driving us craaa-aazy." Jason has about a thousand little ditties he's made up to comfort her.

We've also discovered that Adelyn loves watching her dad dance. Last night, after twenty minutes of non-stop crying, we sat her down on the couch and Jason just started maniacally dancing. It was sort of out of desperation and sort of for our own exhausted amusement. And then, just like that, she was smiling. He danced until he was out of breath. And then we gave in and picked her back up.

Just this morning--she ate, she burped. We had about twenty minutes of play-time where she was all smiles and coos, and then, poof, happiness gone. Crying ensued. Eventually I walked outside with her pressed against my chest, and suddenly she was happy again. So I brought her bouncer out to our back deck, and for now she's content, staring at me. If she likes it outside, then here we will stay. All. Day. Long.

I'm not complaining, really I'm not. We are so lucky. Not only is Adelyn perfectly healthy and wonderful, but she sleeps through the night pretty much every night. I'm always surprised when I wake up at 7 a.m. after eight hours of interrupted sleep. And I always take a minute to thank the baby Gods for giving me one who likes to sleep in her crib, alone, for hours at a time.

The better she's been sleeping at night, though, the harder she's been to deal with during the day. I've been doing a lot of freelance work and I'm up for a wonderful job that would allow me to work from home most of the time (more on that later), but that's become increasingly difficult with a baby that won't nap, won't be set down, and won't be happy. I need to find some way to get her on a schedule during the day. I'm not asking for the schedule to be perfect, but it needs to be something. Anything.

I know it'll pass. Right? Someone tell me it'll pass. Please?