It is hard to believe that she has graced us with her presence for 8 months already! It has gone so fast!
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| Doing her superman pose |
I must admit, though, that I have been a little frustrated with her lately.
She is a HORRIBLE napper!!! She won't sleep unless she is being held or in her carseat in the car. She falls asleep in your arms but the exact moment you get up from the rocking chair or you lay her down, she is wide awake. I have tried laying her down just groggy and not full asleep, but then she just thrashes around and never sleeps. She will do this for 1/2 hour or more. So, I get her up but she really is so tired that she won't do anything. And she's cranky! Then, she gets sooooo tired that you can't get her to sleep even by rocking her. She's beyond the point of no return...
So, I decided today.....on her 8 month birthday.......that we are starting some "tough love" time. As much as it is going to kill me inside.....she needs to learn to sleep on her own for a nap. That's something that I don't understand about her.....she sleeps wonderfully at night. I just lay her down after feeding her a bottle, wide awake, and she goes to sleep and sleeps through the night. Why can't she do this during the day?!?!
If any of you mommas have any advice for me, let me know, PLEASE!!!
This afternoon I had somewhat success....but, I am afraid that it was really just some luck. I laid her down groggy. She thrashed around and cried for about 10 minutes. I went up there but didn't pick her up. I just rubbed her back and after about 5 minutes she feel asleep. Yeah!!!! Like I said, though, I think it was just pure luck. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
Another thing I have been frustrated with her.......she is totally regressing......or something. I know that she goes through these phases where she doesn't progress. But, I feel like she is going backwards. She won't pivot. She won't be in the quadruped position ( and she used to LOVE that position and could be like that for 5 min. straight). She won't side sit, she won't kneel. Sometimes, she barely will sit.
She used to do all these things and now she doesn't want to do any of them. She's not sick. She's not learning a new skill in a different area. She's just doing a whole lot of nothing.
Sometimes I think she just doesn't want to do it......because she's stubborn.....and by, golly, she is NOT going to do it!
I don't know how to break out of this. Her PT doesn't have any suggestions other than try to make things fun for her, don't push her. But, I am feeling frustrated. Any suggestions?!?!
Okay, I am looking at that cute little face smiling above and I feel bad for feeling frustrated!
So.......happy 8 month birthday Madi! And here's to hoping that we have a break through with both the napping issue and the "doing nothing" issue.
4 comments:
Girl, I know how you feel! You know, Emmie is only a month older than Madi, and it seems to me those girlies are two peas in a pod! Only, our problem is sleeping at nightime, which is going to be the end of me:) The doc just told us the same thing you have mentioned, tough love. Ohhhhh, its hard! But, we are going to let her scream this week at 2am and try to pretend like its not breaking our heart not to go get her. About the regression thing, I think your mommmys intuition is right, you need to go with that. You know, this is both our second babies, and maybe there is something to this birth order thing, cause Emmie is stubborn as can be! I know just from your readings and seeing how much you love your girls, how this backwards and standing still thing kills you. But you know what, I can see it going the other way as well, which is exactly what happnened with my friends little guy with DS. And then all of the sudden, all of her fears disappeared and he was running all over the place and NO ONE could catch up to him...not even the dog:) BTW, if you want to switch babes for a few weeks, I could use some nighttime sleep, and you will love Emilys day time naps, shes a good napper when its light out:)
Ohhh, she is sooooo precious! That smile is to die for. :-) I know it's hard, but don't worry, she'll get it (the sleep and the PT progress both!). There's a lot of push and pull as she starts to learn that she has control over some things. Be patient - she'll get there!!
Kamdyn is exactly opposite. She goes down SO easy for nap, but she screams at night when I lay her down. Sad to say I'm not really any help in that area. I let her cry for a minute, but I go get her if she doesn't stop. She sleeps great after that, though. If she wouldn't stay asleep, we would have to do something different. As far as the other thing, it does sound like she may just being stubborn. Kamdyn has fought us for months when we made her push up to sit. She flopped her body onto the ground and screamed as soon as she felt us putting her in the position. She's the same way with quadraped now. Last week, I caught her pushing up to sit like she had been doing it whole life. She did it with no problem, just a smooth steady motion, and she was sitting up. I know she could have done it months ago, stubborn thing. Just keep working on all those things, and she'll do them.
I have found with Levi that usually after a plateau or regression period, there is some explosion of development. Last month he wouldn't sign, he wouldn't drink from his cup, he wouldn't even lay on his belly. Now when you say "how big is Levi?" he throws both arms in the air and grins. He drinks from his sippy cup like it's going out of style, and he is waving (and saying) bye-bye!! There is a book called Touchpoints that is mainly about typical development stages, but the author says that kids always plateau or regress before a big spurt in skills.
As far as napping, I think it was more than luck for you today. We have a 15 minute rule and will let Levi cry it out for no more than 15 minutes. Sometimes he doesn't cry at all. Sometimes at minute 14 he falls asleep. Other times, we have to go get him, but it usually works for us. It is hard, but I think you are doing the right thing.
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