At least she doesn't bite. Yet.

I was recently congratulating myself on being lucky enough not to have a child who takes off their diaper and smears poop all over the walls. I had to engage in this kind of thinking because I have a not-quite-three year old who has decided nap time is for the birds. Bedtime at all for that matter. I have found this a bit of a challenge to deal with. I am exhausted. Some days she does in fact still need a nap, but will never take one until at least 3pm, so more often then not we keep her up anyway and deal with the crankiness. Not always.


So - even though she's in the process of giving up her naps, I still lay her down at 1 or so for quiet time in her crib. I did this today, though I am pretty much past hope of her actually falling asleep at this point. Just over an hour later she is sounding a bit upset so I decide to let her out - as long as she calms down a bit, which she does.

As I approach the bedroom I smell poop - and it all makes sense! Because even back in the days when she TOOK naps, she would poop about half the time and not go back to sleep until I changed her diaper. Seriously.


It takes me a moment to take in what is in store for me today. Which is a naked kid, with a BIG turd on the the sheets and poop over her hands and legs. This was, however, no poop turned finger painting incident. As soon as she sees me she bursts into tears about how she has yucky on her and needs to wash her hands. And a lot of "Take it off. Take it off mom!!" Which continues until I finish hosing her off in the tub and washing her hands with soap in the sink.


I think was happened was this: she pooped her diaper and didn't want a dirty diaper. I didn't hear her telling me she needed a diaper change so she took it off. She then discovered that - ew! this is a little gross, what do I do with this?Get it off me. Then I walked in.

2 more things: I think she is really mentally ready for potty training now (or soon) and perhaps I should convert her bed to toddler like I've been thinking so she could really come and tell me or at least sit on the frog potty in her room. But these things freak me out a little. Good thing Bill is coming home soon!

Sleep Chronicles on hold

Well, I think we are finally getting somewhere with sleep. It's still not perfect and it's still not easy, but we finally are back to taking two naps each day AND have had more nights of real sleep in the last few weeks then in the entire last year since she was born.
Tonight, a little while after I put her down, I decided to sit in the rocker near the crib instead of continuing leaning over the crib patting her back (my back can't take it anymore). I just shushed quietly and rocked in the chair and she didn't seem to mind as long as I was there. I thought she was asleep and tiptoed out - she cried for a very little bit - and went to sleep.
Mmm - sleep

Sleep Sack

Continuing on the sleep series I had going (with hopefully very few entrys left . . . unless we have another baby). . . . it's gotten cold in Georgia. I didn't know it GOT this cold in the south. Monday night Miriam woke up three times. It seemed chilly in her room (and you all know about keeping a blanket on a kid). So Tuesday, after my workout, I made a run to Babies R' Us (appox. 7 minutes away you know) to see if they had sleep sacks for one year olds. Did you know Halo makes sleep sacks for toddlers now? I mean, up to 5 years of age. I'm trying to picture stuffing my five year old into one and . . . it's not looking very clear.
I took my chances and put the sleep sack on, even though she was all ready in bed, and what do you know . . . she slept 11 hours straight. I never heard her get up and put herself back down or anything! So we'll see if it was just a fluke or if my poor child was really just COLD. (That's not the only thing of course, she's been doing really well sleeping, but that was the most recent adventure.)

The Sleep Crusade

I hate to say it, but I think I'll be writing about this all week long.
Last night we had an SCA event. We weren't home until 10pm. Miriam could have easily passed out in the car at 9pm but didn't until about 9:40 or so. She then proceeded to wake up at 12:30, 2:30 and 4:45 - the only good thing being she put herself back to sleep at 2:30.
So . . . CRAP!
Today I was a stickler about naps - not that they we're any easier to achieve. In fact today she was worse, playing in the crib with her feet. I think we ARE making progress in that she quit crying in her crib twice today - not because she fell asleep - but just stopped and played. NOW if she'll just stop crying, play for a while, and then GO TO SLEEP, we'd be back where we were.
We did get two naps in. The second one was kinda late which was why she refused to go to sleep until almost 9:30 tonight - at least I think that is why.
Let's hope tonight goes better on the wake up front.

Day 3

Just a quick note:
Last night she slept until 4:50. Then it took me until almost 5:30 to get her back to sleep. We ended up having a small bottle because her tummy was rumbling. So we did pretty well.
Today, even though she got up at 7:45 she was rubbing her eyes by 9am. We were in the middle of a shower, so afterwards, we got cozy and read books and sang songs and ate a little more formula. It took me 30 minutes and 3 tries to get her to go to sleep, even though I knew she was tired. And I'm starting to get frustrated with all of the screeching when I lay her down.
Even worse? The prospect that the screeching is just going to be part of putting her down now. I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around that.
If I can just get a nap time routine that works, that calms her and produces a drowsy baby maybe we can eliminate the screeching.
I'm looking for my sleep books today. Like Good Night Sleep Tight, which Kirsten recommended (and I packed away thinking I would have it again shortly). I started on it, then picked it up from the library while 'in transit'. I'm just hoping it'll have some good suggestions on how to make this a little less heart-wrenching/frustrating for us.

Sleep!

So yesterday Miriam took TWO NAPS - two hour and one half naps- so we were successful. Then last night she slept from about 8pm to 5:30 without getting up at all. I did wake up around 2:30 and think - she hasn't gotten up yet! - zonk
The last time she slept for any amount of time straight was 2.3 weeks ago, before Bill's first day of work she slept 10 hours straight. 2 weeks - that is the shortest stretch of time EVER between two nights of sleep! Maybe there is HOPE.
Today she only took one nap (we TRIED for nap two). However, she almost slept for 3 hours . . . so I'm hoping that this still equates to good sleep for her tonight.
Back to the battle again tomorrow . . .
I'm just hoping to get consistent sleep. I can't tell you how nice 7.5 hours feels. Let's keep it going.

Georiga part 3 - time change

Night #1 in our apartment could have been better. We failed to get Miriam to bed on Georgia time. Instead she napped from 7-9:30pm Georgia time. In the end we decided she'd better sleep in our room, seeing as she's been in 'our room' for nearly 2 months (since we moved out of our apartment and were staying with friends/family that is).

I am feeling especially frustrated that all our work when she was younger is for naught. We used to be able to put her down for nap/bed and she would roll around, play and go to sleep on her own. Now I am pretty sure, she'll stand and scream. This is most definitely partly my fault as I was slightly lax on how I put her to bed for most of those 2 months, what with all the transition, I felt like she deserved some extra . . . something. And I got pretty tired for a few weeks. So it was back to sleep 'by any means necessary.' *

After being off for 6 hours the alarm begins beeping again and we can't get it off. Somehow, Miriam and I still go back to sleep.

*Just as a note we are still working on getting her to go down for bed and naps two weeks later. It's been hard and I hate that it is hard but I think we are making progress with our new "schedule."

My child slept from 6:30pm to 7am. That's right - over 12 hours. Not straight through mind you - (this did include her early morning bottle which I can't seem to get rid of thanks to her lack of growth a few months back - now she acts like she NEEDS it) and her diaper was so soaked in the morning I had to give her a bath. But I thought - wow - She went down at 6:30 and I didn't even have to get up at 4am.
Just thought you should know . . . maybe there is hope for us yet.

Burning the Candle **Updated

This week, I am totally confused. For a few months we've been on a regular schedule. Two naps. 9 and 2ish. We began Monday, waking up at 5:30am (that's RIGHT send sympathy) and taking naps from 7-10, 12-2:30, and 5-6:30. Every day since then has been total confusion. Well not exactly TOTAL confusion, but all of a sudden our morning nap has been shortened to 1 1/2 hours. And then, afternoon nap? . . . what's that? I don't want to take that! (Until I'm exhausted and sleep somewhere between 5-7)
You can't hold my baby like a "baby" and put her to sleep (you know cradled) and she will no longer relax her head on my shoulder and go to sleep (well, on the very rare occasion this still works). So for me this leaves nursing and . . . ?
At night if you leave her alone she will usually go to sleep . . . as long as she has her binky. So far this doesn't seem to work during the day.
Basically, what I am getting at is I HAVE NO IDEA what to do next. Is she trying to reset her nap schedule? If so, what is it already! Is this a sleep regression? And how HOW does she want to be put to bed? And someday SOMEDAY, SOON PLEASE I would like to get a decent nights rest. I got a nights rest at 2 months and 41/2 months. Miriam is 7 months on Saturday. I figure I am due another one ANY DAY.
I desperatly need to do some research on sleep methods. (Never mind that my doctor told me until she gains some more weight, when she wakes up and wants to nurse she needs to nurse. And she's almost up 1 pound in the last 3 weeks. We're doing better.) What have you ever done?

** As cute as can be and making my heart melt when I view her sleepy little self in a "C" shape on her side in her crib. Then she woke up every two hours last night. Seriously. Every. Two. Hours. Huh? So excuse me while I got back to bed during this morning nap.

Lullaby

This evening I decided to try out this CD I got from my healthcare plan (It was that or the digital thermometer and I decided three was enough, you know one for armpit, mouth, and that other place). It's the heartbeat music therapy. So not only do I have the wonderful Yankee Doodle, London Bridge and The Cheese Stands Alone (what is that song again? Oh - The Farmer in the Dell) playing in the background but this loud, neverending Thump thump, thump thump. It was starting to drive me crazy, but then I looked over and saw the girl who was fighting sleep looking like this:


And I promptly decided a portable CD player would be on the list of things to buy with our tax return.