Bedtime
Bedtime Limbo: that time between putting the child in her crib and going to bed yourself. If you lay down straight away the child will cry for you seconds after dozing off. If you force yourself to stay awake the child will quietly play in her crib for 20 minutes before falling peacefully asleep.
Sick AND teething child – time for confetti! Still waiting for those molars to come all the way through, they are definitely making progress. But boy does she teeth hard; the poor girl spends hours each day shoving fingers in her mouth and crying/whining. She comes to me for hugs, love and nursing, but when she realizes I am not fixing it she pushes me away to go scream in a corner. She get SO frustrated.
The cold isn’t getting worse, it’s just been a very runny nose all week – so gross. I am constantly wiping it, and I am quite thankful that she now seems to understand the concept and sometimes even comes to me for nose wiping. Now the nose is not as runny but she’s coughing as it drains. Sigh. I can hear her coughing at night and during naps, but she doesn’t usually wake from it.
The sleep has just been a nightmare. She gets a bad sleep association every time she is sick or teething and starts freaking out at the sight of her crib. She goes from happily going in her crib when sleepy and falling asleep on her own to struggling in my arms, crying, throwing her paci, and running for the door soon as she gets free. This happens even when she is falling down exhausted. So we had to switch to getting her to fall asleep in the living room and carrying her in to put her down after the fact. So frustrating, especially at 3am!
She does seem to be doing a bit better the last two days though… I can put her in the crib very drowsy and she’ll only whine once or twice and fall asleep. I do have to get her very drowsy before taking her in her room, though, else she sits up with a jolt and panics, causing me to have to start all over again. But at least she seems willing to get sleepy now, instead of fighting tooth and nail. It was a very rough few days.
Only problem is that now she thinks bedtime is after midnight. She’s been sleeping good after that, but before midnight it’s either a huge fight to get her drowsy or she falls asleep willingly only to wake up an hour later ready to play. She’s been trying to fall asleep in the early evening, like 6pm – especially in the car! This leads to a very late bedtimr. We successfully avoided it while driving home today… only to have her sleep 9:00-10:30 and be up until 1am. Agghhh! Thank goodness I don’t have to work, as I am getting sleep whenever she does, even if that is all morning. At this point I’m not going to bother trying to change the messed up schedule until she’s over the cold at least.
And that is why I’m not posting this week. And now bedtime limbo is now over so I am getting to bed!
Per your pet comment on my blog: I think most of us struggle with that as parents. You should read the parenting illustrated with crappy pictures blog .. The post on pet annoyance
OMG yes… I’ve never seen that particular post before on her blog. So true! I got nearly pet-homicidal when the cats would go busting into her room just as I was trying to creep out after finally getting her to sleep. And the dogs only seem to bark when Kate is napping. Thankfully she seems to just tune them out.
Empathize, Empathize, Empathize. We have been living almost the same life lately…Genevieve got a terrible cold that kept her up nights for over a week (and my husband was traveling and I DO work full time)…I was ready to die…but…it does pass…we are now two nights back in the old routing…to bed at 7:30ish and up around 6am…I can totally handle that. I will send get well thoughts your way and also fast teething dust….G seems to be working on her insizors (sp?) right now…thank goodness for baby motrin!
kd
Hello, I just found your blog by accident one late night. It was the title “Relaxing Doesn’t Make Babies” that caught my attention. Your stories on fertility are amazing, and very educational. I am so happy for you and Den that you finally have Kate. I cried when I read your older posts about the loss of your first child. Your writing is really beautiful! I love the honesty in your writing! I have been reading your blog for almost 6 months now. I don’t have any children but am thinking about starting to try next summer. I just love hearing about all the details of living life with a little one. It sounds like lots of fun! I also like all the information you have included about car seats and other baby products. When and if I do get pregnant I will be checking back into find out what products are the best to buy? thanks. I wanted to write you because I really love your blog and the stories you write about but wish there was more picture to go along with the stories! I think there is only one picture of your husband, none of your parents, friends, cats or your house. When you write about your kitchen I always try and picture what it looks like…is that weird? I’m just a very curious reader? If you don’t like to include too many pics that’s ok. I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask! Ha So MORE PICS PLEASE?