So we've had a few nights of real sleep- night terrors occurring before we go to bed and wake-ups only once or twice a night. Thank you Benadryl & Melatonin! (Social Services- before you take my kids, this was advised to me by my pediatrician). Now tonight, we stop and hope that somehow Lili has be "reset" like a watch or something. Brian can remain the optimist because I sure am not...
We meet with a sleep specialist at Gillette this Friday. Turns out that it took a month for the other doctor's office to realize that the appt we were scheduled for couldn't be kept because that doctor would not see kids under 5 yrs. Hmmm. Don't get me started on that one. As they learned, you do not mess with a set of parents who have not slept. Brian is anticipating a personal phone call from that provider... he-he.
Anyway, I will keep you posted and hopefully get this blog directed back to it's fun old self soon enough...
Thanks to my mom for coming up and entertaining us this weekend & getting me out of the house for some girl time!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Exhaustion
Sorry that things have been so sporadic. To be honest, I think that by the end of the day I am so utterly exhausted I have nothing left & simply want to melt into the couch, which has also become my new bed.
Lili has not been sleeping well. Ha. That is an understatement. Lili has slept through the night only ONE night since December 20th. As you will recall, we separated the girls a couple weeks before this in order to give Lili some sleep because Addi was being difficult. Well, after about 2 wks of Lili sleeping like a dream from the moment her head hit the pillow and Addi continuing to be difficult, it switched.
It started out with Lili waking and crying 4-15 times a night. She would sit up in bed and cry, sometimes sobbing our names until someone would come down and tuck her back in. If you didn't answer immediately she would start wondering around. Eventually she started trying to come upstairs to our room. Shortly there after the element of terror really set in. If she wore footy jammies to bed she would strip down to her diaper and throw herself over the baby gate that we had started placing at the door to her room; sometimes landing headfirst on the hardwood floor. We tried placing the gate at the bottom of the stairs to prevent her from coming up (as she did fall down approximately 5 stairs during the night) but she would find a way to scale it. We tried the max dose of melatonin. We tried sleeping on the couch with her. We tried a "camp out" in Addi's room. We tried bribes, threats, spankings, talks from Nana and her doctor. We tried letting her cry it out and caved after 2.5 hours of screaming. We tried double gating her room which resulted in her becoming hysterical, throwing all her toys around her room and then building a stack high enough in her room out of bean bags, blankets and stuffed animals to try to climb over the top of the 2nd gate nearly 5 feet in the air.
It has become less hysteria unless of course the door is shut. On the nights I eventually cave and let her sleep beside me on the couch she does finally sleep the rest of the night. I am not sure how to explain how truly hard this is becoming. Every night, literally, for 53 nights now, Lili is up all night. Starts at 10-10:30 like clock work. On a good night she's up only every 1.5 hours. On a not so good night she can be up as often as EVERY 15-20 minutes. Sometimes you can yell to her from the couch to go back to bed and she'll lay back down and fall asleep for another 30 min. Othernights she's nearly impossible to coax back to sleep and then when you finally do she's up again in another 30 min.
Her doctor thinks it's behavioral and that despite her fears we need to just shut her door when she gets out of bed and just leave it closed for the rest of the night. This is the one thing we have not tried. I don't have the heart. She seems to become terrified, not just angry, when the door is shut and I don't want to create a fear of bedtime. She GOES to bed well. Also, I think this is more than just a behavior. I feel like there are some more organic sleep cycle issues behind this. I mean, think about how tired you get sometimes. If you are like me, when you are exhausted you can sleep through fire alarms. So why has Lili, who is obviously tired herself, not gotten to the point that even once a week she has one of those nights where she is soooo tired that she just sleeps through the night because she's too tired to "play the game"?
She has slept one night. One night at Nana's house last month she slept through the night. I suggested letting Lili move into Nana's house, but for some reason that solution didn't take.
We are scheduled to meet with a psychologist in early March that specializes in sleep issues in children. I'm not holding much hope for it getting resolved anytime soon... I miss my bed. I miss my husband. I miss my concentration & sanity.
The irony, Addi sleeps wonderfully. Go figure. So if I seem short or am not keeping up on this lovely blog, please forgive me.
Lili has not been sleeping well. Ha. That is an understatement. Lili has slept through the night only ONE night since December 20th. As you will recall, we separated the girls a couple weeks before this in order to give Lili some sleep because Addi was being difficult. Well, after about 2 wks of Lili sleeping like a dream from the moment her head hit the pillow and Addi continuing to be difficult, it switched.
It started out with Lili waking and crying 4-15 times a night. She would sit up in bed and cry, sometimes sobbing our names until someone would come down and tuck her back in. If you didn't answer immediately she would start wondering around. Eventually she started trying to come upstairs to our room. Shortly there after the element of terror really set in. If she wore footy jammies to bed she would strip down to her diaper and throw herself over the baby gate that we had started placing at the door to her room; sometimes landing headfirst on the hardwood floor. We tried placing the gate at the bottom of the stairs to prevent her from coming up (as she did fall down approximately 5 stairs during the night) but she would find a way to scale it. We tried the max dose of melatonin. We tried sleeping on the couch with her. We tried a "camp out" in Addi's room. We tried bribes, threats, spankings, talks from Nana and her doctor. We tried letting her cry it out and caved after 2.5 hours of screaming. We tried double gating her room which resulted in her becoming hysterical, throwing all her toys around her room and then building a stack high enough in her room out of bean bags, blankets and stuffed animals to try to climb over the top of the 2nd gate nearly 5 feet in the air.
It has become less hysteria unless of course the door is shut. On the nights I eventually cave and let her sleep beside me on the couch she does finally sleep the rest of the night. I am not sure how to explain how truly hard this is becoming. Every night, literally, for 53 nights now, Lili is up all night. Starts at 10-10:30 like clock work. On a good night she's up only every 1.5 hours. On a not so good night she can be up as often as EVERY 15-20 minutes. Sometimes you can yell to her from the couch to go back to bed and she'll lay back down and fall asleep for another 30 min. Othernights she's nearly impossible to coax back to sleep and then when you finally do she's up again in another 30 min.
Her doctor thinks it's behavioral and that despite her fears we need to just shut her door when she gets out of bed and just leave it closed for the rest of the night. This is the one thing we have not tried. I don't have the heart. She seems to become terrified, not just angry, when the door is shut and I don't want to create a fear of bedtime. She GOES to bed well. Also, I think this is more than just a behavior. I feel like there are some more organic sleep cycle issues behind this. I mean, think about how tired you get sometimes. If you are like me, when you are exhausted you can sleep through fire alarms. So why has Lili, who is obviously tired herself, not gotten to the point that even once a week she has one of those nights where she is soooo tired that she just sleeps through the night because she's too tired to "play the game"?
She has slept one night. One night at Nana's house last month she slept through the night. I suggested letting Lili move into Nana's house, but for some reason that solution didn't take.
We are scheduled to meet with a psychologist in early March that specializes in sleep issues in children. I'm not holding much hope for it getting resolved anytime soon... I miss my bed. I miss my husband. I miss my concentration & sanity.
The irony, Addi sleeps wonderfully. Go figure. So if I seem short or am not keeping up on this lovely blog, please forgive me.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Synapse
DAY 1:
Spa Day
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| Treated myself to a french manicure- did it myself, hence the blurry photo- it's blurry for a reason, folks |
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My hubby was very kind a treated me to a cut and color- AT THE SALON! No in-home, head hung over the sink crap for me!
And time left over to go to the fabric store...
DAY 2:
Shopping trip w/ last of my Christmas money...
The Haul
Oh yeah, and I got this black scarf... Did I mention I have a slight scarf obsession lately?
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| oeufs en cocotte- or shirred eggs with bits of bread |
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| they really were delicious... |
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| fun new hairstyle for the day |
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| new fabric becomes new curtains... |
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| ta-da! |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Royalty
I haven't had anything nice to say about my girls lately. They (well, mostly Lili) are leaving me too sleep deprived and grumpy. So instead, I will just post these...
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Bon appetit
When trapped in the home with sick kids one must find a way to keep ones sanity... I cooked. Pancakes for breakfast, spicy corn chowder & home baked bread for super yesterday, homemade mini chicken pot pies for supper tonight. Can't wait for leftovers this week....
Sunday, January 1, 2012
It's a Wonderful Life
With Bri left in charge of pictures, there is unfortunately a sad lack of them. We had a wonderful time with the family, so much in fact, we apparently forgot to photograph any of it...
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| Lili "sneaking" open her present |
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| A perfect Christmas smile! |
A Merry Meyer Christmas
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| Grandpa "Good Guy" Larry & Adeline |
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| Feel the concentration? |
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| Addi, Grandma, Grandpa & Lili |
What monsters we created the week before (their birthday)! Open, open, open... we wouldn't even let them play with anything they received, but forced them to put the toys down and keep on opening... Then a week later we are upset because they seem so ungrateful, not even looking at what they got, not thanking anyone, just asking "more presents" as the shred the paper of the next box... Hmmm...
They were very spoiled little girls this year. I think next year we will have to make sure we put more "To Do" items on their list (movie tickets, museum passes, etc) or we will be shopping for a new storage shed to put all their stuff in!
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| Addi modeling the cool desk and chair set she got (Lili got one too in primary colors) |
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| Check out Addi's muscles!! |
I got a bunch of nice things myself including a beautiful snowflake necklace, a giant box of yard & knitting needles, a set of ramekins, an immersion blender, super cute socks, a great infinity scarf, the matching wallet to my new purse and about a bazillion more cool things! Just proof that I was an extra good girl this year.
3rd Birthday
Better late than never...
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| Thomas cakes ala Nana- Adorable! |
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| The birthday girls! |
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| What's a party without balloons & party hats? |
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| Even Lucky got in on the fun... |
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| Birthday pouting |
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| Addi showing off... |
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| Blue frosting = Blue faces |
Friday, December 16, 2011
Bad Mom Moment #1895
Oh my god! My kids turned three today and I spent the day at work and forgot to even stop and take a picture of them! That was all I really wanted to do today was to take ONE stinkin' picture of them the day, the moment, they turned three! Ugh... I realize this now as I finally sit down and they are sound asleep.
Favorite moments for today:
Favorite moments for today:
- Realizing how something so trivial such as pancakes can make your day- even when you're three and you're not even that hungry
- Realizing how quickly you can get ready for work if you know you want to make your kids' bday special- even if it's out of guilt
- McDonalds- deliciously terrible for you
- Seeing the girls wish each other a Happy Birthday and give each other a bday hug
- Watching your kids light up & grow just a 1/16th of an inch with self confidence whenever you tell them you love them, are proud of them, miss them, etc. Lili in particular perks up like a parched plant. I love it!
Blast from the past:
My peanuts three years ago. Can you friggin' believe it?
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