Cleft Stories

Well there has been some major “big girl” transitions happening over the past ten days since I last posted. First of all, we set up a mattress on the floor and got Emily out of her crib (thank you, Catherine, for your inspiration).

The “big-girl” bed was very exciting to Emily and she didn’t fight us at bed time or nap time for a whole two days, until she caught on that she still needed to actually sleep in the thing. She didn’t really seem to mind getting out of the crib though – she barely looked at it once she was out of it, so we took it apart about four days after she started sleeping on the mattress (on the floor) and it is now just a faint memory.

I was going to spare Emily the indignity of posting this picture on the blog, but it so completely captures the moment that I couldn’t resist. She can add this to her “why I’m in therapy” list when she’s 25. This is how I found her the first night of sleeping outside her crib. Good thing for that chunky Ikea pillow or I’m sure I would’ve found her curled up on the rug (possibly the ONLY way this picture could’ve gotten more pathetic).

So now Emily continues to fight going to bed, but I’ve done two things (aside from getting rid of the crib) that are reducing our bed time battles and making the process more tear-free. The first is that I take her upstairs a lot earlier than we had been (7:30 instead of 8:30), the second is that I spend a good 30-40 minutes with her in her bedroom – reading, then laying still beside the bed until she’s quite drowsy. This is quite a different routine than me sneaking upstairs while she watches Blues Clues and then Jim carrying her screaming self to bed and depositing her in her crib.

I then leave rather than wait for her to fall asleep. She’s been crying a bit after I leave, but over the last couple of days it’s been only for a minute or two. Yesterday she only wimpered once at 7:50 p.m. when I left her room and we didn’t hear from her again until 8 a.m. this morning. Oh joy! But it’s mainly because we went to Hoffman’s Playland yesterday.

That’s a good sequey into the fun pictures…

Emily and Ana shared their first boatride together – courtesy of Hoffman’s Playland. They loved ringing that bell.

And they’re off!

Yes, that’s me crammed on the ride with them. Emily was too little to ride most of the kiddie rides (except the boat), so I got stuck riding three rides. Good thing this picture is blurry, because that’s more of a look of terror than joy on my face.

Ana dressed as a pirate on Saturday, complete with a stuffed parrot. What does this have to do with amusement parks? Nothing. But isn’t she cute??

Don’t be fooled by her cuteness, she transforms into a raging crazy person at bed time. For those of you that may be pregnant and have happened upon this site, fear not, babies typically sleep through the night as early as eight weeks to three or four months old. My older daughter, Ana, was sleeping through the night at seven weeks old.

Emily, however, is a different story.

Not that she’s not capable of sleeping through the night , because she is. She can go a good 2-3 days with a perfect 11 hour night. There was even a period of time when she happily said, “night night!” when we told her it was bed time and brought her upstairs.

Those days are gone…again.

Here are the girls playing on pretend beds (Ana pulled the cushions off the couch and the two of them pretended to sleep for a good thirty minutes. )

I wish Emily was this happy in her actual bed. Not so! Each night she screams “no!” several dozen times and will arch her back and protest bed time as if it were the worst fate in the world. Jim had been taking Emily to bed while I hid upstairs for the past couple of months and she was fine with that (when I took her, she’d refuse bed time and cry). Now she’s not cooperating for him at night AND refusing her naps.

Give me strength.

Ah well. Emily has always been a fragile sleeper. I wonder if it’s time to switch her to a regular bed and try to get her to really enjoy bed time instead of dropping her in her crib and hoping she doesn’t wake up during the night (she still wakes up 2-3 times a week). For now, I’ve been sitting in her room until she calms down and lays down, talking to her, letting her know I’m there and waiting until she’s drowsy then leaving. She still cries but it’s usually only for 5-10 minutes. Ug. My poor heart!!

This is one tired toddler – I took this picture of her at Ana’s preschool. They have a party each year where the 5-year-olds “graduate” and there’s always a cute theme. This year it was a farm theme with animals and even a little hayride. Emily loved it.

Emily had an extremely rough night on Friday and I think it’s because she’s finally cutting one of her bottom eye teeth. She had a really hard time going to sleep (she kept hitting the music in her crib from like 8 pm to 11 pm). She started crying and complaining around midnight and I got her so Jim could sleep, but he ended up getting up because when I try to put her down she totally freaks out. He put her back to bed without any trouble, but I heard her music constantly until about 1 a.m. when she started to cry. I got her and ended up staying up with her until 4 a.m! She fell asleep on me and I put her to bed where she promptly woke up and screamed for a few minutes but fell back to sleep (THANK GOODNESS)..

We never had this kind of trouble with Ana when she was teething, but I guess all kids are different. I’ve speculated in the past that I think Emily really has trouble with teething because her teeth come in so slowly. Ana’s broke through in a couple of days. Emily’s new tooth is under the surface of her gums which have looked red and sore over a week. She’s been fighting naptime and bed time – another sign that she’s teething because the pain can effect her ears which hurt more when she lays down. Poor bunny.

The biggest smile EVER.

A glamour shot.

I have no words to describe the cuteness.

Okay, this self-indulgent mommy moment is now over. You may continue on with your day.