That’s what I was almost forced to use as my exit strategy from D’s room tonight after I put her to bed. Seriously, what is going on with this kid? Bedtime is turning into wartime again, and I am not amused.
She has to fall asleep taking a bottle, and if she rolls over and wakes up when you put her in her crib, forget it. You’ll have to start all over because she’ll stand up and start crying. Tonight it took no fewer than 5 tries to finally get her to sleep. And on that last time I held my hand on her stomach so she couldn’t roll over when I laid her down, or else I might still be in there, on round 476.
Why has this happened? She used to be fine going to bed – when she was nursing we could even put her down with no issue if she was still awake after her last feeding. She would put herself to sleep no problem. I want that D back. This one isn’t as nice.
I want to just let her cry it out, but R usually can’t take it as long as I can and goes in to rescue her. The other night he even said, “Oh, we’ll just spoil her until her birthday.” Meaning we’ll keep going back in to get her and continue giving her a bottle to go to sleep if she starts crying at bedtime until she turns 1 in a few weeks. Ugh. I don’t think that’s called “spoiling” her, I think that’s just teaching her a bad nighttime habit.
And no way could I try letting her cry tonight because R’s still sick and had gone into the bedroom about 3 hours before I was playing bedtime ranger. His Highness with the Sickness would not have been pleased. I was already chastised earlier today for making too much noise as I was responding to D’s little squeals and noises with my own.
As if.
I don’t know how much more of that I can take either. His doctor did put him on antibiotics yesterday for rheumatic fever (eh??) and strep throat (although his throat doesn’t hurt), but then he started feeling worse after taking them. Um, that’s not how they’re supposed to work. Then his side starting hurting because he thinks he fucked it up sleeping on the futon so often this week.
Splendid – that’s the same futon upon which I will be sleeping tonight so he can have the bedroom to himself.
Oh, and don’t tell me D has another ear infection. I know that was the diagnosis when she first pulled the bedtime crying stunt back in March, but I find it really hard to believe that it’s back just 2 weeks after the doctor gave us the all-clear.
When I took her in right before we went to Canada the infection was totally gone in both ears. There was just a little bit of fluid left in one of them, but her doctor said that was completely normal.
Sooo… what gives here people? Tonight she even kept lying down like she was going to go to sleep as long as she could still see me each time she picked her head up. What the? Finally she was like f this, I’m just going to get up. And there we went again.
So finally at 9:30, about an hour and a half after I first started trying to put her to bed, I was able to take a shower. And then since I had the house to myself at long last I gave myself a pedicure. Don’t laugh at either my gross feet or my horrible nail painting skills. There’s a reason I don’t do this for a living:
It’s a rad color I picked up at CVS yesterday, and is much more aqua than it looks in that picture. For some reason only the blue hue got picked up, none of the green. I did take it with my iPhone, though. I wanted a change of pace for the urban adventure race I’m doing tomorrow with my trainer and another girl. Not that anyone will be able to see my toes through my running shoes, but still.
And now I’m going to go eat some Kopp’s frozen custard. I cleaned out and up the whole garage today, walked up to the grocery store with R and D, mowed the yard, and played single parent for a while.
Damn, I hope R’s meds kick in soon. I don’t need 2 babies to take care of in this house.
It might be separation anxiety. It often rears its ugly head around the one year mark. To D, she’s worried and upset when you are not physically near her. It’s a very real worry for her. Unfortunately, you might just have to ride it out a bit. This article has some suggestions for what you can do. http://www.babycenter.com/0_separation-anxiety_145.bc?showAll=true
For now, try to see the bright side! She loves you more than anything – that’s the cause of this!
Thank you, Emilie! I actually didn’t think of separation anxiety, because in every other setting when we leave she’s fine. But that does make some sense. I just hope it’s not too late for us to break this habit with her being too old for it. That article mentioned sleep training around 3-6 months of age, but she was completely heavenly at going to sleep then. Ugh. Where’s the parenting instruction manual when you need it? Ha!
I completely agree! Kids should be sent home from the hospital with a BIG instruction manual. My hospital sent me home with what they called the instruction manual… worked for a few days. I want one that tells me EVERYTHING!
Katie went through separation anxiety about the same time. I didn’t sleep train her at 3-6 months either. But I just powered through it – I personally couldn’t stand to have her cry too much when all she needed was to see me and maybe nurse a little. Eventually, it faded. Good luck!
A little bit off topic here, but can you please post link to RSS feed? I’m trying to add all the blogs I read into my RSS reader to save time
Try this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScooterMarie
Or this: http://www.scootermarie.com/feed/
Was this site previously under a different name? I thought that this was a blog I used to visit but lost the link because my laptop crapped out on me. I think like 3 years ago? Gracias!
Nope, this has just been my blog since earlier this year, no different name in the past.