The Chicken - revisited

cluck cluck

My kingdom for some sleep!

Imagine you are in bed, sound asleep, peacefully dreaming away. Suddenly, you are violently shaken awake by someone. They shout, "Wake up! Wake up!" They demand that you sit up in your bed, keep your eyes open, and stay like that for 20 minutes.

After this rude awakening you fall back into a deep slumber, only to be startled awake two hours later. "Get up! Sit up and stay there until I tell you to go back to sleep!" So you sit up, trying desperately to keep your droopy eyelids from slamming shut. After the 20 minutes are up, you fall back asleep, knowing that it's only a matter of time before you have to endure this again.

Imagine this torture is repeated over and over again until morning. And imagine these nightly sessions are repeated night after night -- week after week -- for eight months straight. You are never permitted to enter that really deep sleep stage, you never feel well rested. Most mornings you can barely keep your eyes open. You are so tired that you sometimes cannot form simple sentences. You become forgetful, irritable, and foggy.

This is my nightly hell.

Ok, so I've kind of brought it on myself. Kaylin doesn't need to eat every two hours anymore. But she wakes up and she doesn't yet know how to get herself back to sleep. The fastest way to get her back to sleep is to nurse her. So I do, and I'm paying the price.

But I can't take it anymore! In an effort to change it, I'm about to spend the next few weeks using the plan laid out in my book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". I'm trying to stay away from the "let her cry herself to sleep" route. I know, if you have kids you're probably laughing at me right now. But I'm going to try. Wish me...yawwwwwwwn...luck!

Bring out yer baby gates, Kaylin's crawling!

It was a really big weekend here. Not only has Kaylin's first tooth broken through to the surface, but she started crawling forwards!

Until now she's been pivoting around in circles and pushing herself backwards with her arms. But that wiggly butt finally got high enough in the air and her knees travelled forwards to set her a crawlin'.

It's so amazing to see her move. She's so much more free -- she can get to the toys she really wants to play with, or she can crawl over to me for a hug (not that she'd ever want a hug - see my last post).

Sadly for me, my days of leaving her in the living room while I fix lunch are numbered. That's ok, who needs lunch anyway?

What's Kaylin up to?

What's Kaylin up to you ask? Oh, about two foot three.

Just kidding. It's been a while since I blogged and bragged about my little girl, so I thought I would update you all. (All three of you who actually read this.)

Kaylin is now seven and a half months old! I can hardly believe it. Where is the time going? Just yesterday she was our little three month old, lying on the floor staring at the ceiling. Now she's grabbing at everything within arm's reach, sitting up, rolling over, rocking on her knees, pivoting on her belly, pushing herself backwards across the floor, and standing while hanging onto things. It's amazing how quickly they change.

She's been sitting up for at least two months now, which means she can reach and grab for all sorts of things. And grab she does. And into the mouth it goes. The tooth fairy has yet to bless her with any chompers (thank god) but we're expecting them any day now. While she's waiting for her teeth, Kaylin is happy to put anything and everything into the mouth with the hopes of relieving some of the darned gum pain.

About a month ago Kaylin finally rolled over. We waited and waited for her to do it, and when she did finally roll I wished she didn't know how! Changing diapers on the floor is a new Olympic sport in our house. Five minutes of "diaper wrestling" leaves me breathless and ready for a nap.

As soon as she mastered the roll, she began pushing up onto her knees and rocking back and forth. You can see that she really wants to move but thankfully we have a little more time left to finish baby-proofing the house.

Sigh, I'm getting tired just thinking of what fun and excitement we have in store for us. Kaylin is a mover and a shaker. She's a bundle of energy who never stops moving. When she gets excited, her arms and legs practically vibrate, her fingers eagerly clutching the air for the toy you've shown her.

She's not a hugger, we've decided. If she puts her head down on our shoulder for two seconds we squeal, "She hugged me!" She doesn't have time to hug! She's got sights to see and textures to touch.

Who can blame her. The world is a marvelous place. And while I wait for my hug, I'll continue to marvel right along with her.