Lucy is my favorite baby girl, that's for sure. But she's a project. A work in progress. She's never been a good sleeper--naps were terrible for ages and nighttime sleep was always just ok. Naps are tough anyway because with her being the third she has to be dragged around constantly to all the other things the kids are doing.
But in the last month or so night sleeping has gotten really bad. There were a few nights in a row in which she was essentially up all night crying off and on from gas or something else. And the only way I can get her to sleep at all on nights like that is by taking her in the bed with us, and then that makes sleep stressful for Kris and I because we're sleeping but also thinking about not squashing a little person.
Anyway, bad nights. Too bad to just endure. The nights were never good but for most of the time there they were at an endurable level.
So anyway I started to work harder on figuring out what's going wrong. I was already giving Lucy gas medicine and gripe water several times a day. I would give her little tummy massages for 30 mins or so before bed, trying to get all of the gas out. And usually I would get some. But it still wasn't enough.
Sandy ended up taking acid reflux meds because of similar problems, so I finally decided that we needed to try it. But only after I stopped eating dairy for a couple of weeks and that didn't seem to help at all.
So hopefully the Zantac will ultimately help. She had a great night after she'd taken it for a couple of days, but then I started drinking milk again and that seemed to have a negative effect. So I've stopped that again and we also started giving her more solids. We were just letting her play around with real foods, and she wasn't actually eating much. So I started spooning her purees too, and that's made her pretty happy.
So the report is that we've had a few good nights lately mixed up with the ones that are still bad. I hope we're on the up & up because I'm doggone tired!
And look at her! She was on the blanket playing with me, then next thing I knew she was across the room! She's scooching backwards and getting up on her hands and knees all the time. We're getting close to a crazy monkey crawler!
I might be tired, but I know by now that "this too shall pass" and it all passes too fast. So I snuggle her up as much as I can. She's my buddy!
3 comments:
It's too bad we have to work our way to wisdom in these things. I knew nothing when I had you - it was all improvisation. Mom finally would show up and tell me what to do, or she'd listen on the phone and give advice. But living through the experience was the only way to the other side. Poor first children - you, me, your father - the experiments that may or may not have turned out well. You know where you are now, with your combined experience with two very different boys. And you've taken the time between to become more and more a grown-up woman. I squeezed everybody in so fast, I had little time to grow between. And you have your last as I had mine - and there's something about knowing this is a last child that makes you calmer, more willing to slow down. What a weird thing life is. But you are doing so very well with it - really growing and taking charge of it. I'm pleased. You are my longest running project, the first of the masterpieces, and I am delighted and pleased.
Oh man, that's so tough. It's hard not to look at her and say: "hey, something's gotta give. We just can't live like this" but it's just not an option. Good job being brave mom and dad!
She is just sooo darn cute. I'm sorry you dont get much sleep. Hopefully the meds will help and she will improve in that department. She is going to be crawling before we know it.
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