Ryan just put Mad to sleep for the third time in her whole life. And it only took half an hour. I'm hopeful that we can start to trade off so that bedtime isn't such a burden (on me). He also put her to sleep successfully on Friday night when I was out to dinner with some girlfriends. I feel like her sleep habits are starting to change. I'm hesitant to write that because I'm sure that as soon as I hit "publish," she'll wake up and not sleep again for the next week, just to prove me wrong.* Since recovering from her surgery in February, she has been sleeping better. Maybe it's just her age, but maybe it's because tumor was removed from her spine enabling her to get comfortable and finally sleep. Don't get me wrong, she still isn't a good sleeper by any stretch of the imagination. I have yet to get a full night's sleep (except when she was sedated and in the hospital). But lately we've been down to 3-4 wake ups a night, which, believe it or not, is an improvement.
Another change is that we removed the side railing from her crib, turning it into a daybed. This makes actually putting her to sleep much easier on us because she likes to have hands on her (and sometimes she insists on having my head on her too...) as she falls asleep. The mattress is only about a foot off the ground, and we've placed pillows down on the floor in case she falls out. She's not ready for a "big girl bed" yet (maybe I'm not ready), but this is an intermediate step.
Life without the line is very good. The bandage was removed, but she still has some steristrips that are covering the incision that will fall off this week, with a little help. She does notice that the line is gone because she pulls the neck of her shirt out and looks down at her chest and back at me quizzically. I just keep telling her it's all done, and now she will look at her chest and make the all done sign (one of two signs, the other is "more," that she consistently uses).
We are all signed up for swim lessons and will begin on Thursday!
*See? As I was finishing this post she woke up, Ryan is attempting to get her to sleep again.
5 comments:
thanks for posting about how MG is reacting to the line being removed - I've been wondering. It's strange to think, even though she can't fully communicate what's in her head, she probably can't remember a time the line wasn't in.
good luck on the sleep transitions. :)
hi there,
sofie's sleep just improved significantly over the past 2-3 mos. It took us forever but now she only wakes up 1-2 times per night and she can fall asleep on her own. She's also confident enough that she decided to spend the night with her aunt and cousins the other day -- totally randomly.
You'll get there, but it can take such a long time. I think around 14-18 mos we saw slow improvement and were down to 4-6 wakings until 24 mos.
Hang in there.
Sofie also likes me to "smother" her with my body as she falls asleep too -- not sure what's up with that.
I've heard that humans spend their entire lives trying to recapture the physical closeness of being in the womb and breast-feeding and that's why we are so in to hugging and snuggling and most likely why young ones can be so difficult to get to to sleep on their own.
Ok, the image of Madeleine looking down her shirt quizzically actually made me cry in happiness - what an awesome thing Amber!!
I hope the sleep gets better and better. Having Roo in a big girl bed is nice because I can snuggle up with her, she likes to spoon. The downside is that sometimes she gets in Alden's bed and he comes to get me and says "someone is in my bed".
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