That we've made progress in the sleep realm with Savannah. I don't know whether to chalk it up to something finally "clicking" for her, or the bribery and persuasion we resorted to. Heck, we've tried bribery and persuasion before, but now I think she's starting to understand it better.
Nearly two weeks ago, she threw up again at bedtime. Peter got her cleaned up and told her that she still had to go back to bed. We had a little talk about how mommy & daddy sleep in their own bed, and how Tristan sleeps in his own bed. I'm not proud of it, but I did tell her that if she wouldn't sleep in her bed all night like a big girl, she would have to start sleeping in a crib again. I also told her that if she stayed in her own bed by herself all night, that she could have ice cream the next day. The three of us had a little talk, and we agreed to leave her bedroom door open and the hall light on for her. We explained to her that she would be able to hear us downstairs, that we wouldn't be far away.
And she stayed in her own bed. All night. She got ice cream the next day.
The next night, it was the same agreement. She did run to the bathroom to throw up, but Peter told her that if she threw up, she was still going to have to go to bed by herself, and that she would have an upset tummy. She didn't throw up, and we put her back in bed.
And she stayed in her own bed. All night. More ice cream the next day.
And so on, and so forth. She's gotten up a couple of times, asking to use the potty. Also, the train wakes her up once in a while and she'll come in our room. But the amazing thing is, we can take her back to her bed, and she'll lie there and go back to sleep. For the last two weeks almost, she's slept every night in her own bed, the entire night most nights.
Sleep has been a long struggle for us. There have been a lot of sleepless nights, nights with her in our bed, nights that Peter spent in her room either with her, or alone since she was kicking him too much in our bed. I give major props to my husband for being willing to endure the brunt of the sleep issues, primarily taking her to bed every night and lying in bed with her until she fell asleep. Most of that fell to him since he has the ability to turn around and go to bed afterward. If I lie there and fall asleep with her, I'd be up the rest of the night. So he took the huge responsibility of Savannah's bedtime. I can never thank him enough for that, and for all he's put up with throughout this struggle.
I feel like it's finally come to an end, and I'm so grateful that Savannah is now getting the rest she needs. A huge weight feels like it has been lifted off of us. It's nice to be making progress, and it's so much better for her. Now we need to get back into the potty training groove, and see if that will fall into place.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Happy Halloween!
Happy super-belated Halloween from all of us! We took a trip to a Hermiston pumpkin patch with Becky, Anthony, and Piper mid-month. Later we carved pumpkins, went to the zoo Halloween festivities, and went trick-or-treating with our little superheroes!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Guess who's 3?!
It's insane how fast the time goes. She is hands down the smartest, sweetest, and most ornery girl I know. She's growing and changing every day, and we're growing and changing with her. Happy birthday, Princess.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Learning to love the leash
"I'll never put a leash on my child." I used to insist that I would NEVER do it. It wasn't fair to the child, I'd be able to teach them to stay with me, etc. Then I took both kids to the Children's Museum, without Peter.
Savannah would take off RUNNING, while Tristan was playing, and I was trying to keep him from being knocked down by the bigger kids. By the end of the visit, I was completely drained. That evening, we went to the store to look at the little backpack leashes, knowing that I was taking them to the zoo the next day.
We put it on Savannah that evening, just to get a feel for how she would react. She loved it and wanted to wear it all night. The next day, she was a little resistant when she realized it meant she couldn't run away at top speed. But, once we started through the zoo, and she realized that we were going to look at all of the animals, she did great.
It was a huge stress reliever and sanity saver for me. It was great having her with me and knowing that she couldn't slip away in the massive crowd, so I wouldn't have to keep her from having fun, and I wouldn't have to experience any of the terror of not knowing where my child was. It was worth the investment, and I take back just about anything bad I've ever said about the leashes.
Savannah would take off RUNNING, while Tristan was playing, and I was trying to keep him from being knocked down by the bigger kids. By the end of the visit, I was completely drained. That evening, we went to the store to look at the little backpack leashes, knowing that I was taking them to the zoo the next day.
We put it on Savannah that evening, just to get a feel for how she would react. She loved it and wanted to wear it all night. The next day, she was a little resistant when she realized it meant she couldn't run away at top speed. But, once we started through the zoo, and she realized that we were going to look at all of the animals, she did great.
It was a huge stress reliever and sanity saver for me. It was great having her with me and knowing that she couldn't slip away in the massive crowd, so I wouldn't have to keep her from having fun, and I wouldn't have to experience any of the terror of not knowing where my child was. It was worth the investment, and I take back just about anything bad I've ever said about the leashes.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Pedal to the Metal!
Well, not quite. But, Savannah is already VERY good at pedaling her trike. We had a beautifully sunny day on Saturday, and headed outside for a while. She did great. She only really needs help on inclines, and with steering. That's just because she likes to ring the bell more than she likes to steer the trike though :)
Birthday Boy
Well, it has happened. My last "baby" is no longer a baby. Tristan is 1 already. That year flew by. He's not even walking anymore, he's off and running. I can't believe how big he's gotten, and how fast he's learning. I've been blessed with the two best kids in the world, and I love them both to pieces :)
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monkey-isms
A few favorites from the past few months :)
Mommy: What's your favorite color? Savannah: Grape!
Savannah:
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
I don't remember signing up for this...
"It won't be like this for long." Such a true, heartwrenching country song that is.
It's so hard to hold on to that sentiment amidst the bedtime struggles we've had and continue to have. You just can't reason with a 2.5 year old. At this point, if I could bribe her with a dang pony, I'd do it.
In reality, this has gone on for about two months. It started as just throwing up if we tried to leave the room at bedtime. She would be ok if one of us would lie on the floor next to her bed. Then she'd wake up if we tried to leave the room. Since she caught us trying to sneak out after she was asleep, it transformed into throwing up at the mention of bedtime. Whether we laid in her room or not. She would be lying in bed just fine, look at us, and throw up.
Sadly, we could and still can see in her face that it's intentional. Some nights she would throw up 3 times before everything was up, and there would be dry heaves after that.
She would never tell us what was wrong. She would just cry and say "lie down" over and over again.
We gave it a break. We cheated. We let her fall asleep on the couch watching a movie, and carried her up to bed. The thought was, maybe she would break the habit if we didn't push the bedtime issue for a little while. It was working out okay, it just wasn't ideal. After about two weeks, when we were starting to wonder when we should "try again" with putting her to bed (because be honest, would you be looking forward to going back to potentially being puked all over?), it came to an end. She woke up as Peter was carrying her up the stairs. She looked at him and threw up on him and on the stairs.
The next night, we tried again. More vomit. We sat on the floor with her in her room for half an hour. We asked yet again what was wrong. She finally said she was scared. She pointed to the bed when we asked what she was scared of. We asked if she was scared of the bed and she pointed under the bed. I asked her if she thought there was something under the bed, and she said "snakes".
For the next few nights, her stuffed animals "stood guard" on the floor making sure nothing would come out from under the bed.
By the coming weekend, we went and bought her a twin captain's bed with drawers underneath, thereby eliminating "under the bed". She loved the bed, we spent a lot of time showing her the drawers, and what was in them (blankets) and explaining that there was nowhere for the snakes to get under the bed. We started a new routine to try and make her more comfortable in her room: dinner, playtime downstairs, bath, playtime in her room, climb in bed to read a few books, then lights out. I stayed in her bed with her until she was asleep and then left the room.
It was working for a little over a week. Then she started waking up as I would leave. Then there was some crying herself to sleep when we enforced her staying in bed. Then the vomiting started again. And now, here we are.
Now, after she's finally asleep, if she wakes up in the night she just comes into our room. We're so exhausted that if it's after about 1AM, we just let her stay in our bed. She can climb over a gate, so that's out. Our doorknobs are oddly shaped, so the childproof things don't work. Aside from putting on a new knob, there's not much else we can do. A few nights, we've even stood outside her door and held the doorknob when we've heard her get up. After a few seconds, she'll go back to bed and cry a little until she falls asleep. And yes, this is all after the vomit-fest. It's so heartbreaking and infuriating all at the same time, but we don't know what else to do.
Two nights in a row (against our better judgment, but it was worth trying), we even let her sleep in it after having cleaned it up once. It didn't phase her at all.
There was no single event that stands out that could have upset her this much to trigger it. The only big thing that had happened around the time it started was Christmas, about 2 weeks prior.
Even the pediatrician says that she checks out fine, and medically, there's nothing that can be done to make her stop throwing up. I didn't expect that they could do anything, but it never hurts to rule out the possibility that they've had cases like this before and have some advice or something we haven't thought of.
She has favorite stuffed animals that she sleeps with, who sometimes get vomit-baths. She has a nightlight and a twilight turtle, and a CD of celtic lullabies that has played on repeat all night since she was a baby.
Through internet research, all I've been able to find are people who had similar issues and just had to wait for it to pass. I hope that's not the case, but it's looking like a definite possibility.
At this point, a friend is looking for referrals for us for a children's behavioral psychologist to see if there's anything that can be done to help change her habits to hopefully nix the vomiting. I have my doubts, but I'm open to trying. This is so hard on all of us. Emotionally, physically...we're just drained. And whether she's doing it on purpose or not, this can't be good for Savannah or feel good on her throat, tummy, and muscles.
I'm not sure where to go from here. We'll see if we get a referral to a psychologist and go from there, I guess. Until then, we're dealing with it as best we can.
It's so hard to hold on to that sentiment amidst the bedtime struggles we've had and continue to have. You just can't reason with a 2.5 year old. At this point, if I could bribe her with a dang pony, I'd do it.
In reality, this has gone on for about two months. It started as just throwing up if we tried to leave the room at bedtime. She would be ok if one of us would lie on the floor next to her bed. Then she'd wake up if we tried to leave the room. Since she caught us trying to sneak out after she was asleep, it transformed into throwing up at the mention of bedtime. Whether we laid in her room or not. She would be lying in bed just fine, look at us, and throw up.
Sadly, we could and still can see in her face that it's intentional. Some nights she would throw up 3 times before everything was up, and there would be dry heaves after that.
She would never tell us what was wrong. She would just cry and say "lie down" over and over again.
We gave it a break. We cheated. We let her fall asleep on the couch watching a movie, and carried her up to bed. The thought was, maybe she would break the habit if we didn't push the bedtime issue for a little while. It was working out okay, it just wasn't ideal. After about two weeks, when we were starting to wonder when we should "try again" with putting her to bed (because be honest, would you be looking forward to going back to potentially being puked all over?), it came to an end. She woke up as Peter was carrying her up the stairs. She looked at him and threw up on him and on the stairs.
The next night, we tried again. More vomit. We sat on the floor with her in her room for half an hour. We asked yet again what was wrong. She finally said she was scared. She pointed to the bed when we asked what she was scared of. We asked if she was scared of the bed and she pointed under the bed. I asked her if she thought there was something under the bed, and she said "snakes".
For the next few nights, her stuffed animals "stood guard" on the floor making sure nothing would come out from under the bed.
By the coming weekend, we went and bought her a twin captain's bed with drawers underneath, thereby eliminating "under the bed". She loved the bed, we spent a lot of time showing her the drawers, and what was in them (blankets) and explaining that there was nowhere for the snakes to get under the bed. We started a new routine to try and make her more comfortable in her room: dinner, playtime downstairs, bath, playtime in her room, climb in bed to read a few books, then lights out. I stayed in her bed with her until she was asleep and then left the room.
It was working for a little over a week. Then she started waking up as I would leave. Then there was some crying herself to sleep when we enforced her staying in bed. Then the vomiting started again. And now, here we are.
Now, after she's finally asleep, if she wakes up in the night she just comes into our room. We're so exhausted that if it's after about 1AM, we just let her stay in our bed. She can climb over a gate, so that's out. Our doorknobs are oddly shaped, so the childproof things don't work. Aside from putting on a new knob, there's not much else we can do. A few nights, we've even stood outside her door and held the doorknob when we've heard her get up. After a few seconds, she'll go back to bed and cry a little until she falls asleep. And yes, this is all after the vomit-fest. It's so heartbreaking and infuriating all at the same time, but we don't know what else to do.
Two nights in a row (against our better judgment, but it was worth trying), we even let her sleep in it after having cleaned it up once. It didn't phase her at all.
There was no single event that stands out that could have upset her this much to trigger it. The only big thing that had happened around the time it started was Christmas, about 2 weeks prior.
Even the pediatrician says that she checks out fine, and medically, there's nothing that can be done to make her stop throwing up. I didn't expect that they could do anything, but it never hurts to rule out the possibility that they've had cases like this before and have some advice or something we haven't thought of.
She has favorite stuffed animals that she sleeps with, who sometimes get vomit-baths. She has a nightlight and a twilight turtle, and a CD of celtic lullabies that has played on repeat all night since she was a baby.
Through internet research, all I've been able to find are people who had similar issues and just had to wait for it to pass. I hope that's not the case, but it's looking like a definite possibility.
At this point, a friend is looking for referrals for us for a children's behavioral psychologist to see if there's anything that can be done to help change her habits to hopefully nix the vomiting. I have my doubts, but I'm open to trying. This is so hard on all of us. Emotionally, physically...we're just drained. And whether she's doing it on purpose or not, this can't be good for Savannah or feel good on her throat, tummy, and muscles.
I'm not sure where to go from here. We'll see if we get a referral to a psychologist and go from there, I guess. Until then, we're dealing with it as best we can.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
9 months already?!
Our little man is 9 months old already. Time is flying by at an unbelievable pace. He's crawling, standing, and nearly walking. My baby is on the verge of not being a baby anymore. I'm not ready, I'm not ready, IMNOTREADY!
He sure is turning out to be a handsome little devil, though :)
He sure is turning out to be a handsome little devil, though :)
Sleep is for the birds
We're being outsmarted by our 2-year-old...help!
To save listing all of the bedtime issues we've had, I'll start with the whole "CIO (cry it out) won't work because she cries until she vomits" part.
Last week, in one night - not only once, but 3 times she vomited. The 2nd and 3rd times were pretty much just stomach acid and some of the water she'd had after dinner. The kicker is that she was making herself throw up on purpose. You could see it in her face, and I'm at a complete loss on what to do. This was followed by more nights of multiple vomiting sessions before she cried herself to sleep.
Three times in one night. We cleaned her up each time, and put her right back to bed. We gave her hugs, told her we loved her, and that she needs to sleep in her bed and we need to sleep in ours. by the 3rd time, we put her back to bed, told her to lie down, and said goodnight. By midnight she finally cried herself to sleep.
She had been doing so much better, and now we're battling with the sleep issues again. I just can't believe she was doing it on purpose! Hopefully after a few more nights we can get her back on track again.
CIO wasn't really an option before, she would get so upset that she would throw up. We felt bad, and at the time, I very much believe that she couldn't help it. Now, we know better. We can see it on her face. Now, it's time for the tough love. It breaks my heart, but we have to get her to learn to sleep on her own.
Last night she only threw up once. Progress, right?
Tonight was much better. She went down without a fight at all, and was asleep within 10 minutes. Is it more progress, or is it a fluke? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
I tell you what though...it's a good thing she's cute ;)
To save listing all of the bedtime issues we've had, I'll start with the whole "CIO (cry it out) won't work because she cries until she vomits" part.
Last week, in one night - not only once, but 3 times she vomited. The 2nd and 3rd times were pretty much just stomach acid and some of the water she'd had after dinner. The kicker is that she was making herself throw up on purpose. You could see it in her face, and I'm at a complete loss on what to do. This was followed by more nights of multiple vomiting sessions before she cried herself to sleep.
Three times in one night. We cleaned her up each time, and put her right back to bed. We gave her hugs, told her we loved her, and that she needs to sleep in her bed and we need to sleep in ours. by the 3rd time, we put her back to bed, told her to lie down, and said goodnight. By midnight she finally cried herself to sleep.
She had been doing so much better, and now we're battling with the sleep issues again. I just can't believe she was doing it on purpose! Hopefully after a few more nights we can get her back on track again.
CIO wasn't really an option before, she would get so upset that she would throw up. We felt bad, and at the time, I very much believe that she couldn't help it. Now, we know better. We can see it on her face. Now, it's time for the tough love. It breaks my heart, but we have to get her to learn to sleep on her own.
Last night she only threw up once. Progress, right?
Tonight was much better. She went down without a fight at all, and was asleep within 10 minutes. Is it more progress, or is it a fluke? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
I tell you what though...it's a good thing she's cute ;)
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