misery

you may have noticed that the title and address of this blog is "domestic bliss and misery," because, let's face it, it's not all bliss. in fact, lately it's been almost completely misery. now, just a quick disclaimer: i am about to whine and complain. this is just to vent. i love my family more than words can express, and i haven't forgotten how incredibly blessed i am. nor am i foolish enough to think that my problems, compared to the problems others are facing, are even remotely problematic. that being said...
my child will not sleep. last night was the 6th night so far this year (note that that's out of a total of 13) in which she's been awake for a solid 2-3 hour stretch in the middle of the night. it was also the 3rd of these nights in a ROW. on each of these 6 nights, the only thing that will soothe her is to nurse, which means even on weekend nights daddy can't help out. she nurses way past the point where the milk is gone, and then still every time i go back in to comfort her, she points to the boppy and signs more. if i say no, she screams bloody murder until i finally give up. therefore, i am exhausted and in pain by the time she ever does go back to sleep, and an exhausted liz is not something anyone wants to deal with. last night involved the throwing of a cup and kneeling on the floor sobbing-- both on my part, not emmy's. and not only are the nights bad, the days are sucky, too- we're both tired, which means emmy throws more tantrums and whines most of the time, and my patience is worn thin because of how tired i am. so then by the time she goes down for a nap, i'm desperate for one, too...only with the length of nap she's been taking lately, by the time i do some bare minimum clean up and then lay down, she's awake before i can get any actual chores done. so my house is a mess, my to-do list is growing incredibly long, and my patience is growing even thinner.
i don't know what i can do to fix the situation, either. i've tried putting her to bed earlier. i've tried sending cody in so she knows she's not getting any more milk. i've tried firmly but lovingly saying no. i've tried meanly saying no (not that this would help, it just gets harder to be nice by the time i've been up with her for 3 hours). i've given her teething tablets in case it's a tooth thing. i've cuddled with her more during the day in case she is doing it for the extra time with me. at this point, the only other option i can think of is to wean her entirely, which i am not ready to do.
ok, i'm done whining for now. she's in bed a little early tonight, and cody's at church, so i have a chance to get one or two things checked off that to-do list, hopefully. thanks for reading, and if you're willing, say a little prayer for our family and a return to normalcy:)