Seriously though, it's like when you take a vacation and feel like you need a vacation afterward! Ha.
I'm just utterly exhausted, but I'm sure that's mainly due to the fact that I'm coming down with a cold.
Logan started with a runny nose late in the week, and it's spread to Meredith and I. I don't think it's the flu or anything, just seems like sniffles, and runny noses, and a little bit of a sore throat for me. Let Hand-wash-a-palooza 2013 commence!!!
I thought mid-week I was going to have it fairly easy. The kids were absolute ANGELS on Wednesday. They seriously were. I should probably write that down in a baby book somewhere to document it. They played nice, ate good, were generally calm and mild-mannered and we just had the most awesome, pleasant day ever.
Welpppppp, I paid for it. Big time.
Thursday and Friday were a NIGHTMARE. I mean messy mealtimes, messes all over the house, screaming, fighting, hitting, attitudes, just ridiculous. And Saturday and Sunday really weren't much better.
This is fairly unusual for Logan, because in all honesty, he really usually is such a good kid.
Not really surprising for Meredith though. That little child has got a really nasty attitude about her, and I have no clue where it came from or why. It's baffling. Don't get me wrong, I do truly love her with all my heart, but those who have witnessed it can testify to her brattiness. We are dealing with overcoming a number of obstacles with this child, and I joke constantly that one of us, either her or I, are not going to make it safely to her age 18!! She is going to drive me insane long before then.
I've tried to nurture her as best I could without coddling her. Especially with the colic, then the surgery, the physical therapy. Now she's showing signs of significant speech delay. And the best way I can describe it, is that she acts very baby-ish still. She doesn't seem or act her age at all. I'm not sure if this is standard or more typical of a second child. We really did try not to baby her. I just feel like she is far less advanced than Logan was, or even other children her age. She's almost 2, but in so many ways I really feel like she's such a a'baby' still. She was over a year old before we got her off the bottle. She will sometimes use a fork, but a spoon is almost a lost cause. She is a terrible messy eater. Logan was fully on a fork and spoon by his first birthday. So this is all new to me.
Sleeping has been another issue. She has always been a night owl. We did NOT transition from her infant and colic days well at all. No matter what we did, she would just refuse to go to sleep at a normal hour. Then from the time she turned 1, until just recently, pooping was an issue. And I think it's part of why she wouldn't go to sleep. Almost like clockwork, she would poop between 12:30-1am. Then there was the issue of being concerned about her waking up her brother or my husband. The kids were to be sharing a room, so it would've been quite a task putting a screaming child in with a sleeping one. And my husband works long hours, and gets up very early. So even though we set up a small crib in our room for her, I had to be careful she wasn't going to keep him up all night too.
Usually I would throw her in the pack n play in the family room when it got late, she'd play and whatever, and I'd wait for her to poop. She'd do her #2, and I'd change her and all, then toss her back in the pack n play until she was asleep or almost asleep. Then I'd carry her up to our room for the night. Terrible, terrible, terrible-I know! And it created a bad habit of the tv being on down in the family room most nights too.
Well, all of a sudden a few weeks ago, she won't sleep upstairs anymore.
Not in the pack n play in our room (which is where I would put her for her afternoon nap too), not in the big real crib in the kids room. She just wouldn't have it!! She would freak out, and scream and cry. But the minute I brought her downstairs and put her in the pack n play in the family room-BOOM. OUT LIKE A LIGHT!! No rhyme or reason!
So finally (like 2 weeks ago), my mom and I decided to say screw it. We said she needs to get over it, and just tough it out. We decided we will make her cry it out in the afternoons in the crib for naps. I know some people are hardset against CIO, and it's not something I've ever firmly instituted ever with the kids, but she's 22 months old, I figured she would be fine.
The first day she cried for a full 45 minutes before we caught her on the camera basically climbing out of the crib (or climbing back in! hard to tell by the time we saw, when I got up there she had gotten back fully in the crib.) Obviously, safety comes first and I brought her downstairs.
The second day, she cried for about 45 SECONDS before we discovered her on her belly, on the railing teeter-tottering back and forth with her feet in the air. I ran up and grabbed her as quickly as possible.
The crib is up way too high to risk her breaking her neck! And yes, it is set as far down as the mattress can go! And believe me, it's fairly low! This is also a first for me. Logan never climbed out of his crib. Not once.
Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
She got a reprieve on the 3rd day because she got sick, and we then we just haven't even tried again.
I'm really at a loss.
After 3-4 weeks of sleeping on the couch in the family room (What can I say? I'm more worried about everyone else upstairs getting sleep I guess), I decided I had had enough and couldn't do it anymore.
I should mention that aside from all of this......Logan hasn't been sleeping again either. He would go to sleep in his bed, and wake up between 1-3 every night crying and insisting on going in our bed. When it started, I conceded, out of fear of waking up his sister (or Matt), because at that time Meredith was actually sleeping through the night in our room!!!!
Well I decided I can only tackle so many things at once, and had Matt bring the extra mattress up to the kids room. My poor back can't take sleeping on the couch anymore. And decided I would just put Logan right to sleep in our bed each night (and weirdly enough, he doesn't wake up when he goes to sleep in our bed. I still have no clue why or what is causing him to randomly wake up when he's put to bed in his own room!!!).
Well, back to Meredith.
The one day she tried to get out of the crib, I sat on the floor and held her to calm her for a few minutes (she was very worked up). And when I let her down, she had started to go to climb in Logan's toddler bed.
So I had decided that I would go ahead, put Logan in our room, and see if I could get her to sleep in Logan's toddler bed, with me on the mattress on the floor. Well, she wasn't having that either. I put her on the mattress with me, and she just sat there, wouldn't lie down, for over an hour-before finally laying down and giving me a horrible restless night's sleep. So last night, the second night, we decided to bring her pack n play from the family room up and try to get her to sleep in the room at least, even if still in her pack n play.
Well she freaked. Again. I tried a few things before I gave up and did something I am totally against.....and turned on the tv. And lo and behold, she sat there a few minutes quietly, and then laid right down and went to sleep. Go me! Gave me kid a terrible habit already! :-/
Tonight was slightly more difficult, but I don't even have the energy to go into all that.
I just honestly don't know what to do with her!! She is the most difficult child I have ever met or heard of in my life. What do I do? Seriously? I feel like I can't risk her falling out of that crib. The thought petrifies me!
And I've got reservations about leaving her alone in there to sleep in the toddler bed too. It's got a railing on one side, and the wall is on the other, but I'm worried she'd slip or get hurt trying to climb off the end.
I feel like I've got some impossible challenge and I've got no clue where to start or where to head.
And now I'm sick on top of all the nonsense. The kids are sick. We're all a bunch of grumpy, crabby people. And none of us are getting enough quality sleep! Sheesh.
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