Two nights ago Leila woke up around 1 a.m. and screamed and cried and carried on until 4 a.m. Nothing helped her. We rocked with her, changed her, kept her cozy and warm and as soon as she was relaxed enough (maybe even almost asleep), we'd put her back in bed and the fit would start all over. It was maddening, absolute maddening. I've feared for awhile that we have a terrible night time habit with her because we sleep deprived parents, who just want to get her back to sleep as quickly as possible whenever she wakes up, have been fixing her a bottle in the middle of the night for eternity. Sometimes, I've been able to get her back to sleep without a bottle. So, I felt it was prime time to start working hard to break the habit... and Dad has to be on board, too. We've also been taking measures to help her stay to sleep: thermals under her pjs, vaporizer on each night, full tummy before bed, lavender lotion, etc. When Austin and I saw our chances of 5 hours of sleep dwindle to a possibility of 2 hours of sleep, we caved and gave her a bottle. And, she slept until 9 in the morning.
The very next night, we did all of the same things to get her ready for a full night's sleep and added the HEPA air purifier to our list of aids. We thought the constant whir, which was a necessity for her when she was a baby, would help her to stay to sleep. The girl slept for 14 hours. It'll be much easier to break the bottle habit if she would just break it herself and stay asleep. :)
Gage has his own light-switch behaviors lately. In fact, I've found myself in some public situations kind of embarrassed and looking around for the mom of the kid that I just don't recognize. He can be so doggone literal and sensitive about situations that are oblivious to most 4-year olds that, since he is a 4-year old also, we just can't always seem to get him to understand. His mind is ahead of him, but his emotions are often age appropriate.
His preschool teacher came to our house yesterday for a home visit and he was so excited that she was coming to his house that you would have thought her name was Santa Claus rather than Mrs. Dawson. As he waited, he couldn't sit still, he couldn't eat, he couldn't stay calm to save his soul. When she arrived, all the pent up energy exploded all over her and for the hour she was here, he was a tornado of activity and talk and he was so proud to conduct a one-on-one show and tell, that included our bathroom tile. When she had to leave, he acted as though his best friend was moving away for eternity. Good-byes with him have turned into quite a show. He cries and pouts and puts himself in a corner.
Today he's going to his first birthday party for a friend from school. While he's been to several birthday parties, he hasn't been to lots and lots of kids parties. I have no idea which son of mine will show up--the one with the 'tude or the one without. He already started today with a fit over his brownie being a shape that he didn't like, so I'm afraid of what's to come the remainder of the day.
Bottom line, all Cables are still in the need for more sleep. And, Leila just busted out a new bottle of lavender lotion that she 'discovered' in the pantry. I might start dousing my kids with it multiple times a day.
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