I'm Still Here...

Long time no post, huh?  Life has been kind of crazy around here at casa de G.  See, a certain little miss just stopped. sleeping. 

Like, she went from 12 hours straight per night, to just a few hours a night.  She wakes up and it is darn near impossible to get her back to sleep.

Ok, sometimes we can get her back to sleep, but put her down?  No, not ever!  The second you put her in her crib, she's back awake and crying.  And I'd be happy to share my bed with her, but she's not down for that either.  We even tried to get the hang of side-lying nursing.  We got the hang of the nursing part, but my hopes of her drifting off and peacefully rolling onto her back so we could all sleep were quickly dashed.

I blame the teeth.  There's definitely two little teeth coming in there on the bottom and they're messing with our lives.  Ruby's sleep got great when she figured out that she liked to suck on her fingers until she was asleep.  Yeah.  She doesn't do that anymore.  Or pacis.  Anything that goes in her mouth goes to the sides, I think those darn teeth are just hurting her.  And it's changed the way she nurses.  I don't know what she's doing to my right nipple, but OW.

So forgive my absence, blog-land.  R also won't nap without me holding her in my arms, so between that and racing to my bed the second I actually get her to sleep in the evening, I have little time for blogging.  Or anything else for that matter.  Sheesh!  The words, "this too shall pass" are definitely my mantra lately!

I Have No Dignity

Do you have any phobias?  I do.  I pretty much don't like any living things except for large mammals.  Well, unless the large mammal is a bear.

My biggest fear is bugs and creepy crawly things.  Which leads me to this tale.

Yesterday, Ruby and I were at our second home Target.  We'd been running around trying to find a swim diaper that was small enough for her (since the one I bought the other day had big, gaping legholes...).  So when we got to Target, I parked out in the boonies in the shade of a tree, so that I could nurse her in the car before we went in.

We shopped (Target has CUTE baby girl stuff for fall right now), and came back out to the car.  I was taking Ruby out of the Beco, when I saw a WASP in between us.  Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!  A wasp!  By my baby!!!

I held her out, and spun us around to try to get it away from her.  I deposited her into her car seat quickly, but the dang thing was all. over. me.  I've never been stung by a bee or wasp, and my mom is allergic, so I'm kind of afraid I will get stung and I will be allergic.

Which leads to the no dignity part.  Picture me running around my car, waving the Beco wildly, and yelling, "Nooooo!  Toots!" (because it had gone back into the car and buzzed her face during this, too).  After what seemed an eternity, it flew around the corner of the car, so I jumped in the back with Ruby and slammed the door.  I was shaking all over, no joke, and she just sat there looking at me like, "WTF Mommy?".

I was afraid to get out of the car.  I buckled her in, and then texted my follies to Mr. G.  He pretty much made fun of me.  I was certain that as soon as I opened the door, the wasp would be all over us again, and now Ruby was strapped in, so I couldn't get her away quickly!  Her seat is in the middle, though, so climbing over wasn't an option.  Yes, I considered it.

Finally, I jumped out, opened the my door, and jumped back in.  After checking to make sure it didn't follow me in, I actually saw that freaking wasp fly right past my window.  

I must've smelled really good.  And I must have looked absolutely ridiculous to all of the other people at Target that afternoon.  Made me glad I parked out in the boonies!

And since posts are boring with no pictures, here's one of Miss Ruby playing after we got home:

TGI Bedtime

The above picture pretty much sums up my day.  

Braidy went into the nursery and peed RIGHT next to the crib, RIGHT next to where Ruby's head was. She must've done it right before Ruby woke up (or maybe she woke her up, she did get up about an hour earlier than she usually does).  When I went in to get her, I could smell it right away and see the spot on the carpet in the semi-darkness.

I'm still pissed about it (no pun intended).  I'm extra pissed because she also peed on our bed earlier in the evening.  She's been doing this on occasion since Ruby was born, so we don't let her up on the bed anymore.  Keith decided he wanted to snuggle her, so he let her up for maybe five minutes.  Then he asked her to get down, and what do you know?  Wet spot on the bed.  Cue the midnight comforter washing.

I sent Keith into Ruby's room while I fed her to clean up the pee on the carpet.  He didn't want to use chemicals on it if we were going to put her back in there, so he sopped it up as best he could, then we put the fan so it was blowing any potential pee-smell toward the open window.  Who knows if this was the right thing to do, but we'd just packed the bassinet away earlier that day, and I don't really trust Keith to have her bedshare with us.  I did put her at the opposite end of the crib though.

I think the new position messed her up (maybe?) and she woke up just two hours later.  So... it was 5-something in the morning.  At that point Keith was about to get up (once I was done feeding her), so I just kept her in bed with me.  Guess what?  She never went back to sleep.

She didn't take any naps either.  I'm not kidding, NO naps.  Ok, well, I guess she did sleep about 10 minutes in the stroller this afternoon, but that is it.  So that picture above?  Yeah, that was her.  ALL DAY.  All day unless she was nursing.  So I nursed her a lot.  Hey, it worked and she didn't protest.

Tonight we did our normal bedtime routine (vitamins, lotion, diaper/pjs, swaddle, then nurse).  She fell asleep nursing like she always does, and unlatched herself.  I carried her off to bed, set her down in the crib, and BAM.  Eyes open.

I couldn't handle it, I sent Keith in there to put her back to sleep.  It took him a while.  Then, not too long after, she woke, crying hard.  She never wakes up crying.  In fact usually when she wakes, she makes just enough noise for us to know to come get her.  But this was loud crying.  Keith went back in again, got her back to sleep, put her in the crib, then eyes opened.

They shut again right after, though, and he retreated back to our room.  So here I sit, fingers crossed that she sleeps off her funk (she's not sick and doesn't have a fever for the record).  I don't know that I can take another day full of screaming like that.

Little Miss No-Naps

I don't think there's a single mom-blogger that hasn't written about sleep.

Seriously.

For the most part, we've been pretty lucky in the sleep department.  Once we got Ruby sleeping in her crib in her own room, she has been a pretty fantastic nighttime sleeper.  I know, this makes other people jealous.

I set my expectations pretty low, but she gradually stretched her first round of sleep out longer and longer (once we figured out her preferred bed time).  She's gone up to 9 hours before, but has been generally holding steady at about 8.

Naps are a whole different story.

This is the face of a child who will not sleep.

'Round here, Ruby has earned herself the nickname "Little Miss No-Naps".  Yeah, this kid hates naps.  She was doing pretty well with taking a morning nap (thank goodness, this is when I showered!), and for a while would fall asleep around 4:30 each afternoon.  In the middle, she'd catnap.

Now?  Now we're lucky if we get a 30min nap out of her.  The naps have stopped.

"Hi Mommy!  I don't care if I was yawning a minute ago and I'm all swaddled up, I'm going to keep my eyes open as wide as I can!  Isn't that funny?"

I will admit, I am not the best at picking up on her tired cues.  She can be outright yawning, however, but she still won't nap.  Keith or I will swaddle her up, and go bounce her on the yoga ball in her room, and she will plaster her eyes open as wide as they can go and just stare at you.  She doesn't even blink, I think because she's trying to keep her eyes open wide.

This makes for a very grouchy baby.

And now?  Now she's waking up more in the night!  Usually she'd go to bed around 7:30, wake up somewhere around 4:00, and then again between 6:00-7:00.  She had even been only nursing for about 5min at the 6:00 wake up, so I thought she'd be dropping that feeding soon.  Totally reasonable.  

Then she started having that first waking earlier and earlier.  Last night?  She woke up at 1:24!  Of course, she woke up again at 4:00, and 6:00.  What gives, baby?

Everything is better with sleep...

I think part of it is, she's become a champion swaddle-buster.  She even got an arm out of one of those velcro SwaddleMes.  If she gets her arms out, it's all over.  She wants them out, but she just cannot stay asleep like that.  Sigh.

Today I am trying to get her swaddled as soon as I see a single yawn.  I know with bedtime before, I was missing her cues and she would get overtired, then not sleep (seriously, do not try to put this kid to bed after 8pm, she won't have it).  This morning she took an hour nap.  Right now, she's been in her crib for 20min, but she's rolling around.  Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.  Stay asleep, Little Miss No-Naps.

And now, I'm off to go download the Wonder Weeks app for my phone.  Something tells me this may be my explanation for the lack of sleep...