Updates

Pain

The other night, I woke from a horrible dream.  It was about a serial killer who was after me and my family and there were lots of knives involved. When I woke up, I was in physical pain for about five minutes.  Just moving hurt.  It was like my skin was very, very irritated and touching it was very painful.  I wonder if maybe I had so much adrenaline running through me that I felt a physical response from it?  Anyway, I tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't stop thinking about Avery. Finally, I got up, woke my sleeping daughter, and brought her into bed with us so I could get back to sleep.  Usually I'm trying to keep her out of our bed so I can get a good night's sleep!

Playdate

This morning, Avery and I had a playdate with our neighbors up the street.  They have a ton of toys, so Avery definitely had a great time.  After hanging close to her for about 30 minutes or so while she adjusted to a new house, I went over to the window to scope out the view.  When I turned around a mere 30 seconds later, Avery had removed her pants.  It was because she was preparing to go potty (on the toilet).  It took another 30 minutes or so to coax her pants back on.  We make a good impression, she and I.

I found out that Lily, who is the exact same age as Avery, will be going to Avery's school on the same two days Avery goes.  That will be very nice for Avery since it seems most of the kids in her class are boys.  Now that her school-BFF, Ali, doesn't go anymore (her mom had another baby, so Ali's home for a few months), the few girls who are in class are way less verbal than Avery, so she doesn't seem to connect with them.

Following the playdate, we headed to New Seasons for lunch and shopping.  On the way home, Avery fell asleep in the car seat, so now I'm just waiting for her to wake up before deciding on our activity for the rest of the day.  

Avery's Sleep (more for documentation purposes than informing my vast readership)

I think going to school has actually improved Avery's napping.  Other than a few bumps here and there, we've been really, really fortunate with her napping.  Unlike before bed, she rarely gets out of her bed once I place her in it for a nap.  Before bed, she probably gets up 4-5 times to ask for a tissue, or ask to go potty (even though she's already gone), or to ask to put the blanket back on her which is only required because she got out of bed in the first place.  But for naps, she's been cake for the past several months and for that I'm so very, very, very grateful.  I so hope that doesn't change any time soon.

Bedtime routine is somewhat inconsistent.  Most nights are easy in terms of her getting to sleep, though she's been pushing the boundaries of having the door open when she goes to sleep.  I think we're near a crack down on that behavior.  Last night, I told her if she got out of bed even once, then I would have to shut the door.  She stayed in bed, but then kept calling me for one thing or another.  Finally, she asked me to put the blanket on her.  I yelled up that if I had to come do that (again), I'd have to close the door, did she still want me to come up?  She said yes.  I walked into her room and she said, "I stayed in bed!"  I had to explain that, yes, she did stay in bed, but that I warned her that me coming upstairs yet again would result in the door closing.  So I closed the door.  She cried for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, then fell asleep on the floor.  I went into her room to move her into her bed before I went to bed.  When I picked her up, she said, "One, two, three!" right when I picked her up.  She had three bibs on the floor next to her, so maybe she fell asleep counting her bibs?  Who knows.  She went back to sleep immediately when I put her into bed.  Even when the door is left open, she falls asleep on the floor a lot. We'll see how tonight goes with another strict stay-in-bed instruction. 

In terms of Avery staying in bed, we're good until about 5 AM on most nights (maybe 80%?).  The other 20% of nights when she wakes during the night, she comes into our room and asks to come into bed with us.  At that point, I'm usually coherent enough to tell her to go back to her bed.  She does that about 50% of the time; the other 50% she cries for about 10 seconds, they lays down on the floor next to our bed.  Notice I said usually. Sometimes when she arrives in our room in the middle of the night, I apparently pull her into bed, but have no recollection of this.  I'll ask D what happened and he says that she came in and he told her no, so she runs to my side of the bed and I pull her into bed.  The last time this happened, he said he thought he was being overruled (by me), so he didn't stop it (a good man knows that when a woman overrules him, it's best to keep his mouth shut - especially if the woman overruling him is me and it's the middle of the night - you don't mess with a sleepy Megan).  I find it weird to think I'm asleep when I do something like that.

So, for those nights when Avery wakes in the middle of the night, I'm going to try something I read on someone else's blog (Snick, if you're reading, I think it was yours).  I'm going to buy a nightlight that is set to a timer.  I'll have it lit from bedtime through 5 AM (maybe 6 AM) and tell Avery that she has to stay in bed when it's lit.  If it's not lit, then she can come into our room.  We'll see if that works.

I do want to note, for Future Megan to be reminded of, that even though what I described above is the norm at the moment, Avery does occasionally throw a massive fit in the middle of the night. Like last night, for instance. In my confusion, I told her no to coming into our bed even though it was within our acceptable time limits (i.e. after 5 AM). This sent her into a massive fit where she then wanted to come into our bed, but then didn't; she wanted me in her room, she didn't want me in her room; etc. It was basically a recurrence of Angry Child, but since it stemmed from me telling her no to something she wanted, it was more typical of a tantrum she'd normally have versus Angry Child for no reason whatsoever.

Tantrum Update

Car seat tantrums: knock on wood, these seem to be a thing of the past.  Or, at least, they've moved into the infrequent category rather than the daily category.  This is huge.  I can handle a tantrum at home so much better than one while we're out and about.

General tantrums: these can happen any time for any reason, but they're generally reserved for when we're at home and I (or D) say no to something (no milk, no TV, no uppy, no ...) Recently, I've resumed using the 1,2,3/time-out approach.  I hadn't abandoned it, but I'd been inconsistent in its use, mostly because it wouldn't occur to me to do it.  In the past few days, it's worked very well at snapping her out of the tantrum early on.  If I just ignore the tantrum, then it usually amps up to a point where she has a lot of trouble getting herself under control.

Iron Man 2

We'll be seeing Iron Man 2 on our date night this week. I see it only has 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's still high enough to justify seeing it, though no where near the 93% the first one got. I'm not normally a superhero film kind of gal, but I really liked Iron Man.