Sleeping Funnies

I found Ella asleep like this a few months ago. It's very possible she was praying since she's been asking to kneel like that and pray before bed. SO cute!

This one CRACKED me up. I went to check on Ella before I went to bed and found her fast asleep with stuffed animals tucked into her shirt like this! HILARIOUS. She told me in the morning she wanted them to have "a comfy blanket" like her so she thought this was a good way :-) Love it.

Coziness is highly valued in our house

So...on Saturday night I was out for a Christmas party (yes, I know it's february but it was actually really fun to stretch out the holiday and we decided to do this again on purpose next year. But I digress.) So I was out and Chris was home with Ella. They had a fun night, he put her to bed uneventfully and hadn't heard from her since. At almost 11pm when he was heading to bed he went to peek in on Ella. And SHE. WASN'T. THERE. He said he looked around her room and then started to look in the bathrooms, our bedroom, everywhere. He was starting to freak out (I would have had a heart attack by then) and went back into her room and turned on the lights and was about to start yelling for her when he found her. Safe and sound. Asleep. Where you ask? UNDER HER BED!!!!!

He moved her back into her bed, tucked her in and she went right back to sleep. We have NEVER played under her bed, pretended to sleep under her bed, nothing. When we asked her the next morning why she was sleeping there she said very nonchalantly, "because I wanted to be nice and cozy." She is SO funny!

Mommy Jail

Mommy Jail is something my friends and I have joked about as the place we should all go for certain things we've done with our children that we regret. Things like not paying attention and they get hurt or pretending you don't notice when they eat something off the floor. How much we regret them varies based on the offense, how it actually turned out, and whether the offense was actually "wrong" or just deemed so by judgmental others. So, it's confession time. I've had various mommy-jail offenses in my 2+ years in this role but the one that has been hanging over my head for a long time is that I've let Ella go to bed (nap and night) with a bottle/sippy cup in her bed ever since I stopped nursing. This may not sound so bad but it was not water. It was milk. Yup, tooth-rotting, sugar-filled milk. I've known for a fact that she always finishes the entire thing, puts it down, rolls over and goes to sleep so I've comforted myself as I read horrifying articles about "bottle rot" that she never falls asleep with milk in her mouth. Either way, I knew it wasn't the best thing to send her to bed with milk. But, she goes to bed so easily (9.5/10 times) I was too scared to take it away for fear that I didn't actually have a kid who puts herself to sleep but a kid who has an addiction to milk as a comfort item to put her to sleep. Well, about a month ago, we decided if she was ever going to night potty train we'd have to do it. Plus, just because her teeth are healthy so far, the dentist agreed it's not the best plan to brush and then let her drink milk. So we did it. We took it away. We told her big girls don't need milk in their beds and just put her in her bed. And she rolled over and went to sleep. WHAT????? I was all prepped for screaming and crying and she did...nothing. I thought maybe it was just that first night but she has had NO reaction. She doesn't care. Who would have guessed? Not me. I feel liberated. No more ongoing "bad habits" I'm too scared to kick. Ahhh. Freedom!!!! Oh wait...that familiar mommy guilt feeling is reminding me how often I let her watch TV when I probably should just sit down and play with her....oy. Mommy Jail, here I come. Thank God that he is FULL of grace for all the places I fall short as a parent.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. " 2 Cor 12:9 (NIV)

The Dark Side of the Beach

We had a lot of fun at the beach. During the day, that is. The night (yes only one night, we came back early because the first one was so wretched) was horrible. The layout of my parent's timeshare in Bethany is not conducive to a 2 year old actually going to sleep. The 2nd level is just a large bedroom but with no door-it's just open to stairs that go down to the living room/kitchen etc. So, after refusing to go to sleep in the pack-n-play we brought (I knew it was unlikely she'd go for a "baby bed" but anything to keep her contained was worth a try), we tried putting her to bed in the "big bed" which failed miserably. She was totally wired and kept insisting she wasn't tired and wanted to go downstairs. After much frustration, crying (not just Ella), and screaming, Marissa and Chris gave up and let her watch the Olympics until almost midnight. I (sort of) fell asleep in one of the attempts to get her to sleep upstairs but it was one of those painful, half-awake states because I knew I could't really go to sleep because eventually Ella has to go to bed and it's going to involve more crying and probably screaming and I'm the only one who will probaby be able to calm her down. I also knew it would probably end with her sleeping in our bed and kicking me all night. And I was right. She eventually came upstairs with Chris and screamed and cried until I held her like she was in a straightjacket and she eventually whimpered herself into a deep sleep. And proceeded to kick me all night long. When she wasn't pushing me off the bed. Did I mention is was wretched??? God bless all you co-sleepers but it is not a good fit for our family. Literally. This was the first time ever, in her entire almost three years of life, that she has EVER slept in our bed. I'd even tried to get to her to a couple times when she was sick or upset or even just to nap, but she's never been willing or interested at all. She's been in her crib since she was 8 days old and LOVES her crib. So anyway, it was a horrible night and we weren't brave enough to try it again, so we came home a day early. As soon as we got home I did Ella's normal bedtime routine and she happily went into her bed and slept for 13 hours. I had NO doubt she would. Apparently she's inheriting my love of routine and familiar comfortable surroundings. MORAL OF THE STORY: Don't travel with Ella unless she has her own room WITH A DOOR. EVER. Ok, I'm done reliving that episode. The next post will be the normal, happy kind with pictures :-)

Momentous Occassion

To give you an idea of what kind of week it's been I just want to note that Ella fell asleep in the car this evening. This may not sound like a big deal but I kid you not, it's been close to a year since this has happened. I won't go into all of the sordid details but clearly, the last few days have been crazy enough that my child, the no-car-sleeper, fell asleep. Pray we make it through the next few days and that the back-talking, no napping, waking-up-at-night-child who has moved in with me gives back sweet little, sleeps-15hrs-a-day Ella. I miss her.

Sleep Update (for my future reference)

So, it's been long enough that I feel confident that Ella's refusing-to-sleep phase is over. I prayed very specifically for God to show me what I should do to help Ella sleep. A friend reminded me that God knows Ella and what she needs better than I do so why not ask Him for a specific answer? That very day I picked up a SuperNanny book Chris bought me when I was pregnant and it described exactly what Ella was doing (whining, screaming, calling us and then waiting for a response and then getting louder and crying more until we give in and come take her out of bed). It confirmed exactly what I'd been feeling-that this is one of the earliest forms of manipulation kids learn-wearing you down until they get what they want. I knew it felt wrong to let her "win" this battle every night and the Super Nanny's advice gave me the confidence to stand my ground. So, we followed the Nanny's "controlled crying" technique.

1.Talk up the going to bed process and all the steps involved during the day
2.Go through her normal bedtime routine
3.Lay her down in her bed and tell her she needs to put her head down on her pillow and close her eyes and go to sleep. Leave the room.
4.Go back in every 10 min, then 15, then 20 but don't pick her up just remind her that you're still here but that she needs to lay down and go to sleep

So, it was rough to hear her cry but waiting for the timer to go off made it easier to handle. Plus we'd pretty much ruled out that she was in pain or anything. The first night it took an hour before she went to sleep but that's less than 1/2 the time it had been taking for almost 2 weeks!! The next day at her nap it took 30 minutes. The next night she cried for 5 minutes and was out! That was over a week ago and now she's going down like the old days with no crying for naps and bedtime. PRAISE the LORD!!!

Sleep Alert....

Chris was out of town for two of the last three weeks and Ella is getting 4 teeth. Those things combined have caused some never before seen insanity in our house. For 4 nights in a row Ella refused to lay down in her bed and only screamed hysterically until we came in and held her (and even then continued to cry sometimes). The only way to get her to sleep was to let her fall asleep on us and then sneak her into bed which took hours some nights. She napped once during that time and went to bed close to 11pm for 3 nights which means she was sleep deprived and not so nice to deal with. She was back to her normal self after a weekend away and went down just fine last night and this afternoon. Then, I met a friend for coffee tonight and Chris tried to put her to bed and it took an hour and a half. I still have high hopes that that was a fluke and she's back on the going-to-sleep-like-a-sane-child-bandwagon. I hate to even speak of these things but I want to have it in writing so when I'm freaking out if this happens with another child in the future I can look back at this blog and remember that 1)It was wretched and 2)It did end.
I came to a conclusion today when a friend and fellow-toddler mom texted me to ask "Why isn't it bed time yet and why don't I have a full time maid?" (I ask myself those questions relatively often). Basically, toddlerhood is kicking my butt. I LOVED the baby stage but watching my previously angelic-seeming child chase a kid today while holding him by the neck of his shirt in order to snatch his toy away is really no fun. She really is a good girl most of the time but I'm scared of what I'll be apologizing to other parents for in the future as the terrible two's set in. It just comes down my perceived loss of control over her behavior...having control at all is a misconception anyway so it's just a matter of getting on the same page as God about this and realizing Ella is His and He is in control and has been all along. Ok, I promise the next post will be on a lighter note.

On Strike

Ella is on a hunger strike. At least that's what I think it is. She's not acting sick and she's eaten the equivalent of 2 meals in the last 3 days. She ate a little at dinner tonight so I'm feeling encouraged. She's been drinking lots of milk and juice the whole time so she's getting something with food value but still, kind of scary to see her go DAYS with so little actual food intake. The first night she slept her normal 12 hrs but last night she woke up screaming every 1-2 hrs ALL NIGHT. It was wretched. How do people with new babies do it? How did I do it? So, I'm praying she'll sleep well tonight because the Lord knows we both need it. Hopefully the strike will end soon....