By the way, if you're keeping score

Third night in a row of peaceful sleep last night (yay, more Vick's on the feet and chest and no coughing!). Myself included. I think I only woke once or twice. She didn't even fight going to sleep. Her ear wasn't even as gross this morning.

Today at drop off, since we were late, I got to leave her in music class, which is her favorite thing in the world. They gave her a pretty pink scarf, and I passed her off to the teacher and didn't hear a peep.

Yes, it counts...two days in a row of no screaming at drop-off. Darn it, it's Friday. I fear we may lose this peaceful streak with the interjection of the weekend. Ah well, the two good days were great while we had them!

We have answers!

I'd have screamed for the past several nights straight, too.

Last night as I was bathing Anna, I noticed a pool of blood in her right ear. I called Paul over to do a sanity check, and yep: he agreed. As she sat there happily playing with her fireman in the tub (lots of bubbles and dancing and singing), we decided it must have something to do with her tubes...maybe complications of them trying to work themselves out. I wasn't going to stand for another night of misery for all of us so we brought her into the ER around 8pm. She was seen quickly, and by lots of actually friendly hospital workers who were super nice to her. She didn't care for them, until it was time to confidentally tell them "BYE BYE!".

Anyway, turns out she officially has her first ear infection. This was not on my list of possible things keeping her up at night. I missed this because she wasn't congested, had no fever, and wasn't even pulling at her ears. It wasn't even on my radar.Yes, she screamed at night, and yes she was cranky and clingy during the day, but teething is a good cause for that. She does have tubes, but that's because of chronic congestion while she was a baby that was causing trouble with her hearing, with the potential to affect her ability to learn to speak. (Turns out no problem there!)...not for recurrent ear infections. Before the tubes, she literally couldn't hear us throw a pot on the garage floor!

I had an ear infection in May. The first ever in my life for me and it hurt worse than child birth labor. NOTHING without a prescription helps that pain. The only thing that helped my pain was actual Vicodin that I had left over from Anna's birth (that I didn't need then). Ear infections are incredibly painful. Believe me. I am a pretty tough chick. The doc said that it was a good thing she had the tubes on this one...it was bad. All the little kiddos out there with an ear infection have my empathy. It sucks. No wonder she didn't want us to leave her side the past several days and nights!

While at the ER we got a chest x-ray for her cough. I didn't expect they'd find anything and they didn't, yay. I like data and results, people. She sat still like a good girl during the x-rays. In fact she was really good the entire time at the hospital, except when our (12 year old) doctor did his eval.

Last night we got home around 10pm and she actually slept soundly all night, with the exception of the coughing, which amounted to one fit. In the meantime, by the time we got home, my fever had also spiked to 101.2 and I felt it. The cold/chills was the worst. It broke around 2am. I came to work, and Anna went to school. I think my fever is back, but Anna was in a cheery mood this morning, with just a little congestion that actually seems to be growing. No fever.

I suspect she may have had already what I'm coming down with and we just missed the fever, or she never had one. In fact we checked her temp this weekend and nothing. I too, am developing a cough. Ugh. No one touch my door knobs.

Despite my fever and her cough, we had a peaceful night's sleep. I think the ear drainage is offering her some major relief. I know I was just wishing my eardrum would burst when I had the infection, just to get some relief. This morning she woke up with more crap draining out of her ear. It's gross but pretty cool to see what that crap actually looks like.

Here's the thing, people. Before I had a kid, I'd hear these same horror stories from friends and co-workers. I thought, "eh, kids. That sucks. Who'd want that?" But once we were in it, it wasn't that bad. Maybe it's because the folks at the hospital were so friendly and quick, and it was still early in the evening, etc. Maybe it's because she was still in pretty good spirits at the hospital. Maybe it's because we love her so much it's worth it.

Up.All.Night.

Good thing I went to bed at 10:30 last night. I woke around 12:30 to the sounds of Anna's screams, not on the monitor, but from upstairs in the game room. Paul was not in bed next to me.

He had been trying to console her in between bouts of fussing/waking since soon after I went to bed. Nothing was working. I took her downstairs to our bed. No luck, she wanted out. She wanted to be anywhere there was light. So she snuggled with SpaceDaddy for awhile in the recliner with the TV on, then came over to lay down with me on the couch. By 1:30 she was still awake but rubbing her eyes, so I had to be the bad guy and attempt to put her back to her own bed now. She screamed for about 10 min then passed out. SpaceDaddy passed out too. I, however, couldn't get back to sleep. In fact until 7am I think I only slept an hour between 3-4am. That's because when she can't sleep, I am on edge and I can't sleep, out of expectation that she's going to wake at any moment. It's like watching the clock when you have insomnia. It really doesn't help you sleep, does it?

So I feel like trash today. I thought I might be whimping out by feeling like trash until I reminded myself that this kind of sleep disruption has been going on for about 7 nights now. In fact I can't remember a full night's sleep. So it must be starting to take its toll on me. I have started going to bed earlier to try to get some rest before the screams start.

I am driving myself nuts with the "WHY's". Last night she ate a ton for dinner, and even urped up some of it when she was playing because she was so full. Maybe last night she had heartburn? Am I kidding myself? My intuition says teething...Here's a list of her symptoms as of this morning.

Runny nose
A little more drool
Difficulty eating her cereal (fussing)
Still red, swollen gums.

I dragged myself up to her room ready for a fighting, defiant, cranky toddler. I was tired, cranky, miserable myself and was in no mood to negotiate over anything. We were getting dressed, fed, and out the door in a pile of tears and screams if we had to. What I got instead was a cheery, smiley happy Anna-Marie who was chatting it up like nothing had happened last night.

Her cheery attitude disarmed me and actually cheered me up too. That's impressive because when I'm miserable and someone wants to cheer me up, I usually tell them to take a long walk away from me. She was cheery all the way to her classroom, where she proceeded to scream as usual when I left her behind.

Now I am feeling actually more tired, plus chills, achey, just "blah," and my face feels warm. Could I be coming down with something? Could she?

GGGrrrrrr.....

Nice shot, SpaceDaddy!

Going through the camera pics today, I found this one. I'm usually the one to really take pictures around here (thus I am virtually absent from photos of Anna's life), so I examined closer.



Looks like SpaceDaddy thought to bust me on Anna's video monitor while trying to clip her fingernails while she slept last night. I always thought it might be humorous for him to watch me sneak in and run away, flashlight in mouth, everytime she made a single movement. Last night I ran in and out of that room so much I gave up after getting only her THUMB nail clipped. I guess I'll have to try again tonight.

Pray for me.

Pee pee and Buckwheat Honey

This morning both SpaceDaddy and I went up to get Anna ready for school. Isn't she one lucky toddler to have BOTH parents greet her upon wake-up? Talk about some valuable timeshare there...

She was cheery and sweet but as usual, refused to get out of her crib. Then it dawned on me: "Anna, do you want to go sit on the potty?!" She said yes with a nod and we were off to the bathroom. SpaceDaddy credited me with creativity and as I left her sitting on the potty with her daddy nearby, I hear him shout: "pee-pee!" Coming back to the bathroom, she was pretty proud, exclaiming that she just made "pee-pee!" I was happy to be there this time to give her lots of cheers and high-fives! After she wiped (she wiped her hands, folks...I gave her a wipe for the fun of it and she just wiped her hands...wiping her butt is a new one I'll have to learn how to do with this potty stuff), she got up and flushed! She thought that was fun so she flushed again. Then we declared "All done, YAY for pee pee on the potty!" And she laughed and laughed and SpaceDaddy got her dressed for some breakfast before school. She earned eggs and toast with honey and apples/bananas. I am not sure if we're on a roll here, and I understand from those friends who have potty-trained before me that it comes in waves and ebbs...sometimes easier than others, so we are just enjoying the moments and letting them be what they are for now. No pressure.

In the meantime she has this nasty, stupid cough. While I realize coughing has a purpose, I can't understand what use it would have at night when the cough should know that the body needs its rest if it's going to fight off whatever's going on in there. So it bugged me (maybe more than it bugged her) that she had another coughing fit around 2am (no assistance from me required) and then this morning on her last hour of sleep. She was a little more tired than usual on the way to school.

Last night I read a few articles on how honey is better for night time cough than even cough syrup itself. Most people who like the natural cures probably would have tried to encourage me to try it awhile ago, but this is the first time I've heard of a real clinical study for myself (maybe I'm behind here), just in time to offer an alternative to over-the-counter cough syrups that haven't been shown to work in children Anna's age, and could do more harm than good. Granted, the more harm part is caused by idiotic (albeit hopeful, helpful, desperate) parents who feel like the cough syrup isn't stopping the cough so their child must need more. Thus the overdose scares, giving OTC cough syrup the negative spotlight. It's painfully simple. Give your child the dose on the bottle, people. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. You don't give more. You try something else.

I sent Anna to school with a dose of 8-hour cough suppressant today. Don't know if it will work, but I went to the local nutritional store and picked her up some Buckwheat honey. According to the research, 1/2 teaspoon 30 min before sleep should help do the trick. And buckwheat honey is the best for all of its good stuff (like antioxidants). HEB had no buckwheat, though they had every other flavor and variety! Apparently buckwheat honey is produced in states along the upper East coast, and not Texas. So it's a little tougher to find. Anyway, I brought it over to the school with instructions for them to give just before Anna's nap. One of the administrative assistants had heard the same study. Another I talked to was surprised and skeptical. I guess we'll see... granted Anna does still have the cough suppressant in her system.

Hopefully the honey will help with her nap.

She's fighting her nap because she has to pee...?

A frustrated SpaceDaddy just called me about a little friendly toddler who is 2 hours awake past her nap time. Is she looking for mommy? What's her deal?

He did say that as he was trying to get her to sleep, she pointed at her bottom and said, "potty?" So he put her on the potty, and a few minutes later, we have pee-pee! She even said, "pee-pee!". She even flushed. Definitely pretty cool.

But she still won't nap!

Go to sleep, little baby

Anna's been hit or miss this week on going to sleep. She used to love night night, but the past week has been rough. Some nights it's her normal sleeping routine and she plays/sings while falling asleep in her crib, other nights she stands and screams while we feel bad and watch her on the video monitor. We need her to get to bed no later than 8pm. She just needs her sleep. We know she is sleepy. She just doesn't want us to leave the room. It's been the same for naps, too. We hate it when we let her cry herself to sleep. It's sad. Doesn't last longer than 15 min, and we do go in once to let her know we hear her but it's bedtime. But still, she's such a happy girl, we hate that such a supposedly a peaceful time can be hard. It's obvious to us it's just separation anxiety. She just wants to be with us. I'm not blaming anything but the age I guess. I have read that 18 months hits a pretty big sleep regression due to huge cognitive leaps. I guess she's right on schedule! Sorry, baby...hopefully it's just a phase. These kind of things usually are. But it would be wonderful if it was a sign of teething. She's been early/on schedule for all of them but it's about time for the canines now. I'm not seeing anything funky in there, though.

Interesting she naps well at school, and now thinking about it, the two days she's been home with us this week as been the tougher nights getting to sleep....hmmmm....

Good God, what if she starts waking up for us in the middle of the night? Nooo, it can't happen, can it???

Another 2 mile ride

This weather is deceptively fall like. We couldn't stay inside...another 2 mile run with Anna happy in the stroller. Oh how I love the fact that she goes to bed between 7:30-8pm. I've been dreaming of evenings like this since she was born. Ahhh.....

By The Way...

Anna was in bed by 7:15pm last night, finally. She was asleep by 7:30 and we got her up a little after 9am this morning. Talk about catching up! She had one incident of crying in her sleep around 9pm, which lasted maybe 10 seconds, and she found her paci and was out blissfully for the night. Her attitude today is still button-pushing sweetheart.
But Amen for good sleep. It will be tough on her and us to get her to wake up at her old 7am schedule. I guess we'll try it tomorrow morning.

Our Mat Sleeper

OK, so she is half-on and half-off the mat, but sleeping on one nonetheless. She's growing up I guess. She is serious about her sleep.