Monday, January 31, 2011

Oh Sleep, how I miss you

It's still rough going in this house.  The big girls are doing very well.  Livi continues to sleep through the night.  Addi is hit or miss.  But if she does get up, it's usually only once (maybe twice) and that's it.  On the other hand...there's little Elli.  She's getting worse...and worse...and worse.  The past three nights, she's been up at least 7 times in an 8 hour span.  One of those nights she was up NINE times in eight hours.  For real child? 

Supposedly it's pretty common around 4 months to have a major sleep regression.  In fact, if you start typing "4 month s" into a google search, the first thing that pops up is "4 month sleep regression."  You don't even have to type out the word sleep, just the S!!  So there must be a lot of other sleep-deprived parents of 4 month olds desperately searching for why their little ones have become little monsters at night!!

However, what I worry about is that her *true* sleeping habits are beginning to emerge.  I don't remember if I ever blogged about it, but I know I told everyone and their brother while I was pregnanct with Elli that the child never slept!!  She was awake all.the.time.  A little nudge here, a painful kick there, and a head butt just for good measure. She was around-the-clock, non-stop motion.  So when she was born and she was actually a decent sleeper, I was shocked!!  Very shocked.  So is she finally illustrating the baby I knew in utero?  Or is it the dreaded 4 month sleep regression.  I'm crossing everything humanly possible that it's just a sleep regression...because at least there's an end in sight!! 

In other news, Addi had another vomiting episode about a week ago now.  The last time she vomited, she was diagnosed with an ear infection.  This was after she vomited 6-7 different days in a 6 week period.  Anyway, I guess it was actually a week ago tonight because she was fine all day Tuesday and fine Wednesday morning as well, so the girls went to daycare.  I received a call from daycare at about 4pm that Addi just wasn't acting like herself.  After nap, she actually *asked* to lay back down.  Ummm, red flag, red flag, red flag.  We're talking about the child who doesn't sleep (yes, I was blessed with 2 of them!!)

So I left work a bit early to pick them up.  We ended up taking Addi to Urgent Care.  And guess what?  Raging double ear infection.  No fevers, no tugging at the ears, etc.  Just that one night of vomiting.  Leave it to my atypical child to not get the typical signs of an ear infection!!  Doc thinks that it puts so much pressure on her inner ear that she gets nauseous.  And it probably makes her dizzy (so asking to lay down at daycare makes complete sense!)

Anyway, $40 later, we got her prescription.  But we have a major problem.  She won't take it because it tastes AWFUL!!  So after getting 3/4 of a dose down that night and nothing the next morning, I returned to the pharmacy to have flavoring added.  Three more dollars later, nope, not happening.  I made a call to the pedi's office.  They called in a new script.  Picked up that script for $16 and Bingo!  We have a winner!!

Now my only question is why would someone prescribe a FORTY dollar nasty tasting med to a 2 year old that has to be given 20 times (twice a day for 10 days), when there is a much cheaper med available that tastes much better.  Oh yeah, and there's only 5 doses (once a day for 5 days).  So even if it tastes bad, I would only have to force feed it 5 times instead of 20 times.  What a waste of 43 bucks.

Oh well.  We're getting her taken care of.  That's all that matters.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My Sweethearts

Okay, so Elli almost dwarfs Addi!!


Livi has the attention span of a typical 2 year old.

My world.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Big girl beds

.....not happening any time soon.  We attempted big girls beds Sunday night.  And although they went down without a fight and fell asleep right away, that's about as good as it got.  Addi had the strong desire to migrate over to Livi's bed each time she woke up in the middle of the night.  And Livi was unimpressed by having a bed partner.  Nate had to remove Addi from the wrong bed at least 4 times.

Nap time was much of the same.  Three times I had to go in the room to remove her from Livi's bed.  Actually, one time I didn't even have to remove her...she removed herself.  The second the door started opening up, she took off like a flash and scurried right across the room and jumped in her bed!!  So she obviously knows she's not supposed to be in there.  And I also had to make one other trip into their room after I heard a strange clicking sound I had never heard before.  Great.  So I go in, look in Addi's bed and she's not there (shocking).  So I look in Livi's bed.  Ummmm, she's not there.  Where in the world...I lost my 2 year old!!  Here she was under their little bedside table messing with the nightlight.  Good gravy lady.  It's nap time.  Go to bed!!

She eventually fell asleep and took quite a good nap actually.  But not after annoying the snot out of Livi several times first.  I think each of them would do quite well in big girl beds as individuals.  But as a collective unit in one bedroom?  Umm, maybe not.  So their cribs have been put back together.  Oh well.  Maybe when they're five...

I know I've been slacking in the pictures department.  Can you believe that I haven't downloaded any pictures since the new year?  Crazy!  We've taken a ton (as usual).  I just haven't gotten around to transferring them onto the computer.  Soon, I promise, soon. 

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Baby Laughs

Here's a video for your viewing pleasure.  I haven't posted one in a long time, so I hope you enjoy. 

A couple days ago, Livi was jumping into Nate's arms and Elli couldn't stop laughing at them.  It was sooo cute.  She definitely loves her big sisters!  At the end, I think Livi rubs Elli's head for good luck!!!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Breaking News!!!

No, not pregnant.  Figured I'd start with that.

1) Adalyn slept through the night for 6 straight nights!

2) Elli had her 4 month appt and is long, long, long.

3) Elli will hopefully be sleeping in her own crib tonight!

So yeah.  Addi continued her great sleeping habits for six straight nights.  Amazing!  She was going to bed around 7:30pm (with Livi, of course) and waking up between 6:30-700am.  Way to go baby girl!!  And kudos to you, Miss Liv, for your continued efforts.  Your sister might finally be catching on to what you've known for quite some time...sleep is good!

Elli had her appt a couple days ago.  My "little" girl is off the charts!  She weighed in at 14lbs 8oz and she's 26 1/4 inches long!!  Holy smokes!  That puts her at greater than the 97th percentile for length.  I knew there had to be a reason I moved my not quite 4 month old into 6-9 month sleepers.  At least I now have confirmation that I wasn't losing my mind when I thought her little toes didn't fit into her 3-6 month sleepers anymore.  Though I was stuffing them in there anyway because I thought it simply couldn't be right...but it is.  Long, long, long baby. 

Dr K is very, very impressed with her overall development.  It was a very quick appt because I didn't have any concerns to address and neither did Dr K.  Though she did say that the reason Elli may be sleeping so terribly (waking every 2 hours, sometimes less, rarely more) is because she's growing so incredibly fast.  Hopefully once she slows down a bit in the growth department, she'll start sleeping better.

And speaking of sleep, tonight is the first night we're going to try to get Elli to sleep in her own room.  Up until now, she's been sleeping in our room.  She already had a little taste of it this afternoon when she took a 25 minute nap in there (yes, welcome to the world of Elli's cat naps!).  So we'll see how it goes.  I figure I'll let her sleep in there for the first couple of wake ups.  And then after that, I'll probably bring her back to our room - let's face it, when she's waking up at night as often as she is, it's simply easier to have her close.  So we'll trial it for a bit tonight and we'll just continue to work on the transition into her own room.  Wish us luck!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

We're still here

Just tired.  Sleep?  Yes, please.  I would definitely like some of that!

Sleep has been hard to come by in this house.  Bless little Miss Alivia.  She's been sleeping through the night without a problem.  Yes, she turns her music box on more times than I can count in the middle of the night, but she doesn't cry or demand to be taken out.

Miss Adalyn.  Yeah.  Ummm, can you say sleep regression?  She's been our terrible sleeper since day one.  But she eventually improved to where she was only waking up once a night.  However, she must've decided to revolt against the new year, because for four nights straight, she was up at least five times.  FIVE.  Apparently she thinks she's a newborn!  That's how many times Elli is getting up during the night!  Yup, she regressed too.  But I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.  She's still a baby.

So yeah.  With Addi getting up 5-6 times and Elli getting up 4-5 times, sleep is really only something I dream about.  But, but, but.  I am happy to say that Addi has actually slept through the night the last two nights in a row!!  The chick is crazy.  She goes from getting up once a night, which I can completely handle and have resigned myself to the fact that she'll probably do for a looong time...probably until she reaches high school when I'll struggle to drag her butt out of bed to get ready for school. 

Whoops.  Sorry, got side tracked.  So she goes from getting up once a night, to getting up five or greater times per night for four days (maybe it was five, it's easy to lose track), to sleeping straight through the night immediately after that.  I don't get it.  We'll see what tonight brings.  I'm optimistic that she'll do it again, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  Even if she gets up just one time, I'll be fine with that.  We're used to it.  We expect it.  She's up and back down in less than 5 minutes.  We can handle that.  Just pleeease don't be up more than that!

And Livi?  Kisses and hugs baby doll.  Thank you so much for sleeping through your sister's craziness.  I don't know how you do it...but your mommy loves you for it!

And Elli?  Please go back to the 3 wake ups a night.  This 4-5 times a night is kinda nuts.  I'm not asking you to sleep straight through.  Just a bit of improvement will make your mommy very happy!!