Nursery Woes

I am starting to dread Sundays just a little bit. Don't get me wrong, one of the highlights of my week has always been Sunday worship - time to join together with other believers to magnify the name of the Lord, study together, and be renewed in spirit.

But I just cannot figure out how to help Annie through a Sunday. Her schedule gets so thrown off. I usually have to wake her up in the morning to get us to church on time, which is not an auspicious beginning, to say the least. I tried to go to Sunday School today and she made it through that hour, but lost it in between Sunday School and the service. I didn't even make it in to worship before the nursery director grabbed me. (And don't even get me started on what Sundays are like when I am singing with the worship team.)

Today when I got to the nursery Annie had big tears pouring down her little face and was screaming. She was screaming because she was exhausted and past nap time, but she will not nap in the church nursery. I get her to sleep in the nursing room and then the second I step out into the nursery she is WIDE AWAKE and has that look on her face that says NO WAY AM I GOING BACK TO SLEEP. She is well past the newborn phase of sleeping through everything. Lights and sound wake her up.

I just took her into service with me today. She was happy as a lark, but it is difficult for me to concentrate on the service when I'm trying to keep her quiet.

Once we get home she is off her rhythm. She doesn't nap well the rest of the day and is out of sorts.

Everyone keeps telling me that this will get easier as she grows, but I'm thinking she's going to be taking a morning nap for the next nine months or more . . . or at least I hope so!

Any suggestions for surviving Sundays with your little ones?

P.S. I think I'm figuring out what my mom meant when I asked her if I was an easy baby, and she said, "You were an easy baby for me." Annie is a happy baby for me and her Daddy and a few other people . . . but she can give others fits sometimes.