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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Sleepy Heads!

I have been too tired to blog lately. It started last weekend when I was in a wedding and the festivities started on Thursday night. Three nights of being up late took a serious toll on me. Then to make things worse, Lucy is REALLY struggling with night time for some reason right now. We made some adjustments in her schedule and she is now a 1 nap baby. I miss the two naps, but the afternoon nap was making it impossible to get her to sleep at night. She is still getting the same amount of sleep during the day - it is just all in one big nap instead of the two smaller ones. So, that has cured the problem of getting her to sleep because now when night time comes, she is exhausted and goes right to sleep. Sounds great, right? Well, she is not staying asleep. It has been close to three weeks since she slept through the night. At first it was just up once, no big deal. But recently she has been up 4-5 times a night, which makes for a very very sleepy mom and dad! Some of the awake periods are only a matter of minutes, while others are much much longer. I know that she can easily make it through the night without eating, but we have started a night time bottle again. It is sometimes the absolute only way to get her to settle down. I hate that this is started again, but what are you going to do? We have been so spoiled because she has always been such a great sleeper. I really have sympathy for those of you who have little ones who are up a lot. I can feel your pain now.

The sleep problem is being caused by one of two things and probably actually a combination of both. First, three teeth have come through this week. Her third bottom tooth showed up Sunday, then the fourth bottom one on Monday, and the third top tooth popped through on Wednesday. That is a lot of activity in that little mouth and we are still waiting on the fourth top tooth. Maybe she is working on some molars. Again, how are we supposed to know? She certainly doesn't open wide and let me take a look and she is none to fond of my fingers in her mouth. The other likely problem is that we have started integrating whole milk into her soy bottles again. We started this a while ago but stopped when she got an intestinal bug. I don't think that she is tolerating the milk too well. She is very gassy, which is not normal for her. Her diapers are totally normal though, so again, who knows if it is the milk? I went back to straight soy this afternoon and evening, so we will see if it helps. If it does, we are done with the whole milk for now. The part that makes it so hard for me to figure out what the problem is, is that she is perfectly happy and normal throughout the whole day. It is only at night time. Is that normal for teeth or any other problems? She is not fussy or grouchy at all during the day. We are open for any advice at this point, so if you have any ideas, please chime in. Also, we have tried all kinds of things, like putting her in our bed and nothing is working. I just want a normal night of sleep. The really bad thing for me is that I myself am a terrible sleeper. So, once she is up, it takes me FOREVER to get back to sleep. So, I am really dragging.

In happier news, Lucy has FINALLY decided this week that she is willing to give kisses. I know, you are thinking she should have been giving kisses for a long time now, but she has not. She simply wouldn't. Monday night I did my usual and asked for a kiss and she actually leaned in and kissed me - kissing noise and all. Then she was blowing kisses. Then she was kissing Justin. Can I just say that I LOVE BABY KISSES! I even take them now when her whole face is covered in food. Any time she will give em up, we take em.

I don't think I have mentioned this, but she is obsessed with any painting or picture on the wall and really any photographs at all. Maybe she is going to be an artist or a photographer. She points to every picture/painting on any wall and makes this noise that means - tell me about that one mama. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time examining and discussing art and pictures. She is getting so smart that she really recognizes what certain things are. For instance, if you ask her "Where is your baby, Lucy? I think she wants you to rock her." She will find her baby in the room and take her over to her mini rocking chair, toss her in the chair, climb in the chair (and she usually ends up sitting on baby's head) and will rock the chair. She looks for the dogs if I mention them. She knows where her belly button is and she really likes to look for it and anyone else's who will let her. If you ask her what is in her mouth, she will open it as wide as she can and show you her tongue. Really cute. It is so fun to watch her do something new every day.

Here are the latest pictures of the little pumpkin who USED to like to sleep!

Thoroughly enjoying a popsicle with her friend Emerson.

Myself and the blushing bride.

Lucy and her birthday loot.


PRECIOUS!

21 comments:

Ruth said...

I am sorry you are not sleeping well...have you tried tylenol at night for her teething...I think when they are busy during the day they don't notice the pain as much as they do at night...just my experience...it may be that and the combination of the milk giving her a tummy ache at night...I don't know why, but my son had a terrible milk allergy (and soy) and we had to get prescription formula imported from England...anyway it was only at night that he would cry and fuss...not during the day...I don't get it. When my kids were teething they would run a fever, and be fussy although the Doctor would insist that teething didn't cause a fever. I am a Dental Hygienist and it is my experience that it does...Good luck
Ruth

Ruth said...

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the first molars usually start to come in at about 13 mos (average) so that may be it too..
Ruth

mam said...

Welcome to the sleepless Lucy club. I think it's some kind of Lucy conspiracy...or mine is talking to yours somehow and ruining her for you. I'm sorry -- welcome to my nights...except that ours won't usually go down easily at first, either, so at least you've got that!

angie said...

my only advice to you is my favorite phrase about anything my girls are going through...IT IS JUST A PHASE!! i know that does not help when you are tired, but just know that she will sleep throught the night again...it won't be like this forever (althougth it does seem neverending :)

we had some rough times with our girls and have tried everything and all i can say is just keep being creative and trying new things. eventually, this phase will end!!

Anonymous said...

Poor Lucy, K & J!!! I obviously sympathize. From my own experience, it is TOTALLY normal for a baby's issues (teeth, growth, developmental, even sometimes illness) to ONLY rear their heads at night. Addy still sometimes needs milk badly at night - if Lucy is the same way it makes me wonder if it is a growth spurt too - extra calories her body is craving that she didn't need before and hopefully won't need in a bit of time? The dairy is also a likely culprit, you are right. What a pain, huh? It is so hard on no sleep.

One thing I think others have touched on, though, is to remember that she will definitely be sleeping through the night when she is old enough to start school! LOL This will not last forever. Just something to repeat over and over at 3am when you are just wiped out!

Yay for the kisses! That is the best thing EVER!! Nothing is better than baby kisses.

And that is super cool about her painting curiosities! I love that!

But most of all I'm commenting because I am in love with that dress and MUST have one. Email me with details please! It is the best thing I've ever seen!

Anonymous said...

hey kelly
austen has been gasier with the solid food and trying to incorporate milk so we have been giving him mylicon after breakfast and after dinner at night and he has been doing much better. he is sleeping better now. try that it might work. love you guys.
cayce

Mrs.B said...

poor baby Lucy! Poor Mommy and Daddy!! I hope things work themselves out soon. I swear by Highlands homeopathic teething tablets.Here's to a good nights sleep, maybe tonight!

Anonymous said...

A combination of dietary changes and getting several teeth is probably the culprit of the sleepless nights. Ava had a horrible time with molars. Usually it wasn't until a molar suddenly appeared before I realized there was one coming in! Try giving Lucy some tylenol and see if it soothes the discomfort.

As far as tummy troubles, it could be a milk allergy or it could just be her system trying to get used to the new foods coming in. Hard to say. Usually only time will tell. I would try re-introducing the milk but very slowly and maybe keep gas drops around. It could also be gas making her uncomfortable at night.

Don't you wish these little people came with instructions?!

Shawna said...

Lucy, get to bed so your momma can get some zzz's!

Anonymous said...

I love the pic of the bottom two teeth! So sweet! I know that second top tooth is so ready to pop out too! Hope you guys get some rest soon. Love and miss, Stacey

Susan said...

Oh, Kelly, you KNOW I can totally sympathize with the sleep problem. I haven't had regular sleep since before I traveled to Vietnam! I wouldn't wish sleepless nights on my worst enemy, much less my friend. I'm SOOOOO sorry y'all are having to go through it. Hopefully it'll all straighten itself out very soon.

Gotta love the baby kisses. Personally, I get huge, sloppy, wet ones from Petunia -- and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I'm happy Miss Lucy decided to start dishing them out! The dress in the last photos is so great. I love it.

LaLa said...

Sorry you aren't getting sleep..the good news is you have a beautiful daughter! Love the birthday loot pic : )

Sara said...

Hi Kelly,

Sorry it's been so long since my last e-mail, we've been crazy busy...will catch up properly soon!

As you know, we have had many sleep issues with our Lucy. I hate to say this, and not everyone would agree with me, but often the best thing to do for nighttime wakings is to ignore them. It is hard...believe me, I know. But I found that as my Lucy got older, she also got smarter, and of course realized that if she cried, we'd come running. And once we stopped going to her, she stopped crying/waking at night. The first first nights of this are rough but it does get so much better after that. Even these past few nights, her sleep was thrown off for some reason and at first we went to her because we didn't know if something was wrong...but no, nothing wrong, she just wanted to hang out with us rather than sleep! So then we ignored her 2 nights ago and she went back to sleep on her own within a few minutes, then last night she slept all the way through without waking. I have just found that if we consistently go to her, it just makes things worse. And I honestly do not feel that she is growing any distrust in us for not going to her...rather, we feel we are helping her to develop some good skills to be able to sleep on her own. Anyway that is just my 2 cents...and I know that things are different for different families. And we have never been the "cry it out" types, but we've just found that it has been the only way, as she has gotten older, for any of us to get a decent night's sleep (including Lucy -- the farm day disaster was after a terrible night's sleep for her)!

Talk to ya soon!

Sara

Sara said...

Oh and just one more thing to add to my last comment. At Lucy's 12 month appointment when we were discussing sleep issues with the doctor, we were saying we found it tough to let her cry at all at night because it always seemed there was "something" that might be upsetting her...teething, dirty diaper, etc. And the doctor said to just forget about that because yes, it will always be something, and most of it has nothing to do with sleep. In other words, we could have gone on forever, every night thinking it was something else. Of course, this is not to say that we are not compassionate -- certainly if we think she is truly in pain, etc. we go to her. But actually now that she is sleeping so much better, we are much better able to distinguish when she wakes up and will go back from when she wakes up and there is truly something wrong. Again, just my opinion/experience!

Jenny said...

Try soy milk. If she was on soy formula, the milk could be the culprit. we do silk. vanilla silk during the day to get them to take sippy cups and then dha added soy at night for night bottles. They sleep through now.

And use motrin for teeth, it lasts longer!

Sherri said...

Sorry you guys aren't sleeping well. That is so difficult and hard on everyone. The kisses are great. Grace has just recently started doing that. I think she does more for the noise than to actually kiss me. She really loves making noises.

I am sending you a good vibe for a restful night for you and Lucy.

ShellyW said...

Oh Kelly, I remember those days. I hope that Lucy starts sleeping better soon! When both our girls were younger, it seemed that they would do fine during the day and then at night...bingo...the fever or whatever would sneak up right about bed time. At least you can get some kissed during the sleepless nights!!

Take Care!

Heather said...

Oh, man! I can relate to the sleepless nights! When will it ever end? Hang in there and hope it gets better soon.

Sarah won't let me look in her mouth either - at least not without a huge fit. Someone asked if she was cutting her 2 year molars and I felt like an idiot because I didn't know. I have to tip her upside down and make her belly laugh to get a peek inside the mouth. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I love that Miss Luce Luce is climbing in that chair and sitting on the baby's head! Too cute! Can't wait to see the little dumplin' this weekend, and hope you get some rest until then!

Mia's Mommy said...

Kelly I sure hope her sleep cycle gets straightened out soon! Cutting teeth really hurts their little mouth. Mia's a one nap a day gall too (she's sleeping right now matter of fact!) but some days she doesn't even take a nap. Enjoy nap time while you can!

I'm glad you're finally getting baby kisses too!

Brenda said...

oh her pictures with that big ole flower in her hair is so adorable! If there happens to be a website or somewhere I can order them, will you please email me? Paisley, in the last couple of days JUST started pulling her bow out, I'm hoping it's just a faze.