Category: Parenthood

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Is it the teeth?

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Della has pretty much been a champ sleeper since she started sleeping through the night around 2ish months old. But lately something has really been throwing her snoozing out of whack.

It started a couple weeks ago. We do her usual bedtime routine – read a few books in her chair before bed, take her books and little toys to bed, say night-night to all the characters on her wall, she turns on her little musical/nature sounds thing that hangs on the side of the crib, then we put her blanket on and voila. Sleep.

Now, however, once we leave the room, the cries start. As soon as we get back to the living room and sit down we hear, “Mama, Dada, Mama, Dada….” And instead of trailing off as she falls asleep as they have in the past, her cries just get more persistent. So one of us will usually go in, rock her for a minute or 2 since she always stands up and says “rock” at that point, then she’s usually good for the night once back in her crib. Sometimes it does take a couple rounds, but most often if she cries like that it’s just once we go in and then done.

It used to be like this for her naps too, but fortunately those have gotten better. Now I can usually just put her down and that’s that, as it used to be.

I can’t figure out what’s throwing the little girl off so much. At first I thought maybe it was not having her daycare routine in place anymore and being home all day with me. Then I thought maybe it’s her 2 year molars, since all 4 of those have come in during basically this same poor-sleep time frame too.

Oh, she’s also started waking up about once a night most nights now too. That seems to have coincided with this crying bedtime routine window as well.

Any ideas? Do you think it’s her teeth? Growth spurt? Just annoyed? I’m all ears, because within the next couple weeks we also need to transition her into a big bed to get the crib moved into our room for Dv2.0. Hopefully that doesn’t completely make her head explode.

 

 

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There’s a ghost in our house

The other night I sat D in the bathroom sink to wash her hands and feet. At some point she must have stood up and planted her left hand on the mirror for balance, because later in the night I found that little reminder above. A reminder that yes, a munchkin lives in our house.

My first thought was to just clean it off, but then I realized that never again will her hands be that exact tiny size. So what else was there to do but take a picture?

And do a little comparison.

They don’t show up extremely well, and it was hard to even capture the hand prints at all with a white ceiling and bright lighting, but I tried to see just how big mine was next to her 22-month-old hand.

Della and Mommy.

Not ghosts.

 

 

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Anyone else ever heard of this?

Parents of kids who’ve had hand, foot, and mouth, I have a question for you. Or adults who’ve had it themselves too, I guess. Anyone with any experience with HFM, please come over here.

Did any of your kids’ fingernails or toenails fall off after a really bad case?

Yeah, I know, that’s disgusting, isn’t it? Here’s the thing…

The index, middle, and thumb nails on Della’s right hand have all been looking like they’re going to fall off this past week. Discolored, kind of thick-looking, and starting to separate from the cuticle area. My first thought was she must have gotten them slammed/stuck in something at daycare, because we never heard her cry about it at home. But there’s never been any bruising on any of the fingers or nail beds, just these weird nails.

Then this weekend Ryan noticed that both of her big toenails are doing the same thing. So gross!

He typed in “toddler’s fingernails falling off” in Google yesterday, and apparently a bunch of the comments about it were from parents who saw it as a result of severe cases of HFM. Bingo! That must be it. D’s 2nd case was definitely much, much worse than her 1st, and I would call it severe. Wouldn’t you?

Has anyone else ever experienced this or even heard of it? Those dangling nails are really grossing me out.

 

 

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Ode to daycare

Oh, our daycare, we do love it so.

D loves to constantly learn and play and grow.

She whines a little when we arrive,

But after hand washing she’s off to thrive.

 

Her days are filled with art and song,

And sometimes she acts like she’d rather stay there all night long.

The teachers in all of her rooms so far

Have been absolutely wonderful – right now she’s a Shining Star.

 

But there’s just one thing about which I need to complain.

And no, it’s not that today’s filled with rain.

You see this thing keeps happening;

This thing which does not make my heart sing.

 

Every couple weeks the tell-tale signs begin –

Coughing, sneezing, snot rivers down to D’s chin.

Her excellent sleep patterns are soon replaced

By this screaming monster whom I’d like to punch in the face.

 

Not one night has gone by this week

Where we haven’t awoken to her midnight shriek.

“No, not again, go back to sleep!” I silently pray.

For I know this will lead to yet another horrible day.

 

A double ear infection, pink eye, and yes, she’s on meds.

Unfortunately they haven’t yet helped to calm her nighttime head.

I, too, now feel the beginning of this damn stupid cold,

And these aches, pains, and bloodshot eyes are getting quite old.

 

So dear daycare, you’re the best, but give me a break!

I don’t know how much more sickness our little family can take.

Your kids are all cute, I’m not gonna lie.

But I’m now pretty certain they can all shoot biological-warfare grade snot straight out of their eye.

 

 

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The witching hour

I’ve heard a lot of parents lamenting that time of day when their kids tend to go a little more berserk than normal. It’s apparently usually late afternoon or early evening, and it always seems to happen around the time said parents are trying to get dinner made and on the table.

And I’ve always secretly heaved a sigh of relief that D doesn’t really have one. A witching hour, that is. She’s normally very cheery and playful when we get home from daycare, ready to eat soon after we arrive, then happy to play around in her toy area for most of the night until bedtime.

Bedtime can be another story, but when that happens it’s usually because she’s too tired and doesn’t want to trust me that she’s ready to sleep. Silly girl, still hasn’t learned that Mommy knows best, even when she screams otherwise.

Unfortunately, we seem to have discovered her witching hour this week, on the dawn of her 20 month birthday. And how lucky are we? It occurs at 2am. Whee!

The past 2 nights she has awoken in fits of howling right around that time. Did she hear a noise? Did she have a bad dream? Did she just want to rebel against the rest of our world who likes to SLEEP at that hour of night?

Now, she did start a cold on Sunday that has progressed over the past 2 days, so there is that aspect, but still. 2 nights in a row? That’s a little much, my dear. She might average waking once a week or so, but rarely on consecutive nights.

And last night was awful. The sleeping cough she almost always gets with her colds began, so I knew it was probably going to be a rough go. Little did I know that she would wake approximately 78 times between 2-4am. That was great fun.

Poor R is suffering through the adult version of D’s cold right now, and he even got up to help with her fits last night. We took turns, alternating shifts. He gave her some baby Tylenol at one point, but I’m not sure how much it helped. I was trying to magically plug my ears and pretend there was not a wailing child in the house.

So, all this to say, I’m tired. We got a brand new mattress set this weekend, and I’m now 0-2 on nights enjoying it. The thing is an absolute monster – king size pillow-top, and my feet don’t even touch the ground when I sit on the side of it! It’s taller than D now too, so she gets frustrated that she can’t pull herself up on it like she could on our old one.

I envisioned nights of sweet, cushioned, squeak-less slumber, but instead I’ve been greeted with incessant toddler screams and ghosts of pre-dawn terrors.

I do feel terrible for D – you can tell she’s uncomfortable and it took everything I had to wake her up this morning when it was time to get ready for school. But I really hope tonight is better.

Maybe this is payback for inwardly thanking my lucky stars that we don’t have that late-day witching hour. Because if I had to choose between 4pm and 2am, I’d happily say BRING IT ON 4PM!!

 

 

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Wherein I resort to humming

Last night D was in a mood at bedtime. You know which one. The I’m-so-sleepy-but-I-don’t-want-to-go-to-bed-so-I’m-just-going-to-cry mood.

It’s my favorite.

It was about 8:15, and she’d been displaying her usual signs of tiredness for awhile – rubbing her eyes, yawning, getting progressively more restless. So instead of even trying to get her to fall asleep on the couch with R, I carried her into her room to rock with the stars on.

That, apparently, was not how she intended to spend her evening.

She started crying before we even sat down in the chair, and proceeded to try to squirm her way out of my arms to freedom. Not so fast, young lady. I’m your mom and I know you’re tired.

So I just cradled her tightly and listened as her screams turned more into moans and little sobs. Ah ha, progress. I knew it!

She quickly stopped struggling, a sure sign that sleep was near, yet the little cries persisted. Ok, a new plan of attack must be in order.

What did I do? I started humming as her head rested against my chest. I thought the vibration might soothe her, reminding her of her time inside, even though that was so long ago now I’m sure she doesn’t remember it.

What did I hum, you ask? Well since I can’t sing for shit and needed something simple and fast, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” was the winner. Musical genius, right here.

After a couple renditions I tested the waters… Her whimpers started back up after a brief pause to catch my breath, so I continued.

Fortunately it only took a couple minutes more before her limbs went limp, her breathing slowed and deepened, the tell-tale little muscle jerks began, and her head hung lower and lower on my chest. Sleep was here.

So I guess I’m a pretty good hummer.

With my voice.

For my child to get to sleep.

Get your minds out of the gutter.

 

 

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And then there was a toddler in our bed

There must have been something in her milk Saturday night, because D ended up sleeping in our bed for the 1st time ever. We do NOT make this a habit, obviously, when she can’t sleep, and usually she will eventually go back to sleep in her crib after waking in the middle of the night.

But for whatever reason she just wasn’t having it Saturday night. Try as we may, she wouldn’t sleep more than about 10 minutes at a stretch back in her crib.

Feel my pain? Here’s an approximate timeline of how our evening went:

8:00-9:00  Trying to get D to settle down, put toys away, and get snuggled in for night-night. R and I were engrossed in Season 1 of Downton Abbey on Netflix, so we wanted her to nestle into the blankets on the couch with R and fall asleep, like she often does. She was restless.

9:00  D finally conked out in his lap, so he carried her into her crib.

9:00-11:00 R and I become addicted to Downton Abbey. Well, I’m addicted. He may have just been humoring me by watching all these, but I think he actually kinda likes it too.

11:00ish  D starts crying, so after it becomes clear she’s not just sleep crying R goes in to rock her back to sleep. I hear little cries coming from her room off and on.

11:15  R comes back out to the living room carrying D, who is still not back to sleep. He puts her in the blankets with him on the couch again, but she instantly pops back up and now wants to play after seeing a puppy on the tv. Wrong.

11:15-11:30  I take her back in her room to rock with her turtle projecting stars and moons on the ceiling, and she eventually goes back to sleep.

11:30ish  I go to bed.

11:45-12:30  D wakes up 2-3 times, each time I rock her back to sleep. Those “sleeps” last no more than 10 minutes each. I’m getting really tired.

12:30  R goes in to try to get her to sleep and says he’ll just go lie on the couch with her. I know he’ll end up having to spend the rest of the night out there with her if he does, so I say just bring her into our bed. Little did I know that was the beginning of the end of any hope for a restful night.

12:30-6:30  D sleeps between me and R. And coughs in my face all night long. R bails at some point before morning to take up residence on the couch. Lucky. At 6:24 I awaken to a small arm moving back and forth over my forehead, then a finger in my eye. Nice wake up call.

So yeah, that wasn’t the most brilliant solution, and I now know why we haven’t tried it before.

D took 2 naps yesterday for the 1st time in months.