Monday, March 10, 2008

Warning: Parenting Post

Which will probably be boring to many of you.

My first words in this tale will be, Fucking Time Change. We'll start with that. Livvie woke up at 840 yesterday morning, which was actually 740 and was about her usual wake time. So for her nap I decided to stick to our regular schedule and put her down at about noon for a 1230 sleep. No go. She screamed and cried for 30 min until I got her out again. I tried again at 130. This time she threw her bottles out of her crib and became inconsolable. I got her out after 30 min. I tried again at 2 something, and we had a repeat of the priors. So it became a no nap day.

No problem right? I'd just put her down at 630 and she should be plenty tired by then to get to sleep. No go. She cried for 10 minutes because it was still light in her room. Ok. 10 minutes is dealable. Then she got quiet. Asleep? No idea. What I do know is that at 723 on the dot she started screaming and was hysterical. I waited until I knew for sure she wasn't lying down anymore and then went and got her. She was losing her mind. She wouldn't let us hold her, and she literally ran around the house screaming for 20 minutes. Twenty full minutes of ear splitting screeching. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Gas? Teeth? Sore throat? It was awful. We managed to get some Tylenol into her and then I basically forced her to sit in my arms where I ended up rocking her for a full hour. You could tell when the Tylenol kicked in, because after about 20 minutes the screeching became whines, and then slowly tapered down to making a sound every once in awhile. By 9pm she was relaxed in my arms, and I carried her to bed. She never made a peep this time; it was very dark in her room and I would peg that she was asleep by 930.

She woke up at 815 this morning. 11.25 hours. Not terrible, but she usually sleeps 12-13. She will require a nap today but I'm terrified that we'll have a repeat of yesterday. I ended up going to bed at 930 myself last night because I just wanted the day to fucking be over. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 945 at the latest.

This morning she's pretty happy and tractable, and I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Somedays I hate my job so much I feel like walking right the hell out on her while she's acting up. I end up going outside to smoke 2-3 times when she's sobbing before naptime, and she almost ALWAYS cries pre-nap. I just can't listen to it.

Cross your fingers fr us today, because if this happens again my brain will be goggling all over the place. I didn't medicate myself yesterday with anything but beer, and I don't want to end up giving in today.

Thanks for reading. I'll attempt a more fun post tomorrow. I just had to get this out.

7 comments:

Nina said...

Liam woke up at three in the morning screaming and crying because he wanted a sandwich. The one he wouldn't eat for dinner.

My very own sister in law said, "How much time do you get if you kill a three year old? It can't be much since they are so tiny. Whatever it is, I'll take it."

Dagny said...

(((hug)))

Sorry mama. :(

Hang in there.

Anonymous said...

So sorry, the time change is hard on all of us...Probably worse for babies.

Woodrow said...

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Cyn said...

I hope she gets back into her sleeping pattern today.

LizLSB said...

Little ones depend so much on their routines that changes really throw them for a loop. Hope she's back to normal soon.

Michele said...

yeah, the bedtime is not going so well here either.