You have too much high nitrogen stuff and not enough dry leaves and other low-nitrogen stuff.

Top it all with a layer of straw or dead leaves and by spring it will be much better.

Next year, more soil and less manure/alfalfa and corn meal.

The Lasagna beds have cooked down quite a bit. As I've been planting my seedlings it feels like there are still some leaves and paper that haven't broken down yet. If I dig the un planted region over, should I cover it with something to keep the "ingredients" from blowing away?

I could cover the whole thing with newspaper or peat moss and wet it down... would adding carbon help to cut the smell?

Just saw your post Lazygardens... Thank you! Will get some carbons asap!!

Sounds like you've gone anaerobic, fluff it up to let some oxygen in.

The type of smell indicates what the problem is. an ammonia like smell will indicate there is too much Nitrogen in the mix while a putrid smell will indicate anaerobic (lack of air) digestion.
If too much Nitrogen add more high carbon material.
If anaerobic, mix the material up to try to introduce more air. Most of the time piles of organic matter go anaerobic because of too much moisture.

Kimm, good points all. Perhaps the choice of materials added combined with their method of application led to an anaerobic, state. Perhaps going with alternating layers of straw with the alfalfa, corn meal and manure amendments would have helped keep oxygen in the layers. By themselves, those amendments would tend to have little pore space except for the alfalfa prior to wetting. Glad to see I'm not the only one still learning the hard way at times:)

Too much moisture!!! I've been watering the beds every day to make sure the new lasagna beds "cook". I've also started putting seedlings into the oldest area - so I watered them daily.

Yesterday it smelled much better.... I was scared to turn the beds because I had put down cosmos and larkspur that had already sprouted. I couldn't face losing the flowers... I hope to end up with lots and lots!!

Water displaces air, so a too wet pile of organic matter, such as a Lasagna bed, would go to anaerobic digestion if too much water is applied.

If you must water daily, try applying less at each irrigation so that, as Kimm mentioned, all of the pore spaces won't be flooded thereby displacing so much of the O2.

Thanks for the guidance, things smell a lot better!