Patience...Yeah, I need some

So, yeah, for about 6 months now, my babies have been AWESOME sleepers.  They were sleeping through the night by the time I returned to work, even if we sometimes got up for the day at 4:30 am.  They gradually extended their sleeping hours, and for the last several months have been sleeping basically from 7:30 pm-6:30 am.  (I know...I am UNBELIEVABLY lucky in the sleep department!)

Getting them to go to sleep has been pretty easy too.  For a long time, they would fall asleep on Boppies while eating their bedtime bottles, and I would just transfer them to bed. Then, they began to stay awake through that bottle.  They were tired though, and we started to work on putting them to bed awake.  They were doing pretty well with falling asleep on their own fairly quickly. 

Fast forward to last Thursday night...  The girls and I stayed the night at my mom's, which is not unusual for us to do every couple of weeks (and in fact, we had stayed there the night before and had no issues).  My mom, sister, and I went to a movie while my aunt and cousin put the girls to bed.  They were asleep when we got home, but Mackenzie started fussing about 30 minutes later.  I cuddled her for a few minutes, she went right back to sleep, and I went to lay her back down in the pack and play.  She was NOT having it.  Every time I would go to lay her down, she would start screaming.  After several tries, I ended up falling asleep with her next to me in the bed.  Mackenzie got to sleep with me for the third time in her life (she spent two nights in the bed with me when she had a cold a couple of months ago). 

Friday night-back home, back to our normal routine, right?  Not so much.  Again, lay Mackenzie down in the crib and she screamed.  Frustrated, I brought her to the couch with me.  When she fell asleep, I laid her in the Boppy, which is how they both take their naps.  Finally, she stayed asleep.  Eventually, I moved both Mackenzie and the Boppy to the crib and she slept ok the rest of the night.

And that is pretty much how every night has gone since then.  I wondered if Mackenzie was sick, maybe with an ear infection so that it hurt to lay flat.  But she's FINE when she's up playing, and that includes lots of laying down and rolling around.  It's been very frustrating, to say the least.  Occasionally, Addison has gotten in on the screaming action, but she pretty much settles once Mackenzie gets quiet.

I really don't know what the issue is...  Both babies are beginning to get a little more clingy to me, so I don't know if it's that, if she really has felt bad, or what.  I have tried letting her cry for a few minutes, but it just gets louder and more frantic.  I have had to rock her to sleep every night since this all started.  In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that big of a deal.  Even if it takes awhile (and some tears on both our parts) to get them to sleep, they stay asleep all night.  It's not like I'm up at 2:00 am rocking crying babies (thank goodness!).  The real problem is me, and how much I'm letting it stress me out.  I get frustrated so easily when I have had to go in there repeatedly to quiet a crying baby (mostly Mackenzie).  I end up frustrated with myself for being mad at them, and usually in tears because I feel bad for losing my patience. 

Maybe that's what it is...a test to help me realize that I need to have A LOT more patience than I have at times.  I am so incredibly blessed to have two beautiful, amazing, healthy little girls, why do I let the little things get to me so easily??  Any suggestions?  I know Mackenzie will work out these little issues (whatever they are) eventually, so in the meantime, I will keep praying for patience.  Jeremy and I have also made it our early New Year's resolution to have more patience with the girls and with each other in general.  (I'm guessing we will need it even more, since it looks like we will be moving into a new house pretty soon!!  More on that later.)

Maybe I can get some pictures up tomorrow...I've been slacking on both posting and pictures lately.