Rock & Roll all night

If Maggie could have a song lyric to describe the last few weeks of her life, it would be “I want to rock and roll all night and party everyday.” It is true that she has a crazy tongue, along the lines of Gene Simmons, but that is where the similarities should end.


This sweet, 8 month old, daughter of mine use to be a great sleeper at night. I tried very hard to always put her down when she was sleeping. I started putting her in her crib at 6 weeks. That first night she slept a full 4 hours and it felt like heaven. Before we knew it, she was sleeping until 7am when we had to wake her. Occasionally she would wake up. But it was nothing a quick diaper change didn’t fix. The past few weeks she has been waking up around 2:30am after only a few hours (4-5) in her crib. We don’t run to her immediately. Sometimes she is just rolling over or crying in her sleep. Most of the time, she is up and can’t get back to sleep. So, we go to her. We change her diaper. We walk with her. We sway with her. We rock her. She falls asleep. We lay her down and she wakes back up. And then we repeat it all over again. And eventually we feed her, because nothing else has been working. Oddly enough, she slept the best when she was sick for 2 days.

I’ve tried cereal in her last bottle of the day. I’ve tried feeding her solid food closer to bed time. We keep the same routine with her almost every night. It is so frustrating that she now won’t sleep at night. I dread night time now. I know when she wakes up it is over for one of us. No more sleeping for the parent that gets the call. Last night, my sweet Moo Bear, woke up at 12:30am. At 2:10am, after trying all other avenues, including “crying it out,” I took her down stairs. I gave her a bottle, she didn’t fall asleep. We watched General Hospital and The Biggest Loser from last week, still awake. FINALLY at 4am she fell asleep and I put her in our bed. I was too tired to try putting her in her crib and having to start all over again.

I get frustrated with her. I want to be angry because she is keeping me up. But then I think of the parents that will never hold their children again, or babies that don’t have someone to comfort them in the middle of the night. I read too much. I start to worry that maybe there is something going on with her that we don’t know about. Maybe there is something seriously wrong with her that we haven’t discovered yet. And then I remember that she is a baby that won’t take a pacifier, that hasn’t learned to sooth herself, that sometimes has a hurt belly because she hasn’t pooped in days, maybe she is hungry or needs a diaper change.

Maggie is 8 months old today. And I love her. I just wish she would sleep better. She can live out her rock-n-roll life style once she is in college.

Holiday recap

HAPPY NEW YEAR!




The Christmas and New Year festivities are behind us and now it is time to get back into the routine of our daily lives. I say boo to that! So, let’s relive the past 2 weeks briefly…

Christmas Eve got off to a rocky start with Maggie’s all-nighter, but the day did get better. I had to work part of the day and then headed to my mom and dad’s to spend some time with them since we were having dinner at Luke’s mom and dad’s that evening. In the past we have hit up both places and it is hard to do and we are always rushed, so this year we made some changes and I think it worked out well. I took a short nap in the chair with Maggie and I think we were both refreshed after that. Luke met us there and we hung out for a little while. Izzy was of course excited because Uncle Terry was there to meet us in the morning. He’s always worried that the girls won’t remember him since he lives far away, but Izzy always remembers Uncle Terry and misses him greatly when he has to go back home.

We spent Christmas Eve night with the Hunter’s. The kids each opened one toy and got their Christmas pj’s. Izzy got a Snow White doll and Maggie got some nesting bird houses. Both were perfect! It was a fun night for everyone and the kids were on Santa Watch all night. We headed home around 8 or 9 and it took no time for Izzy to fall asleep. I’ve actually considered telling her it’s Christmas Eve every day so she will go to sleep easier, but we would be poor because she would also expect gifts the next morning!

Christmas morning came and Santa had made a very special visit to our house, leaving stockings full of goodies and gifts under the tree. Izzy didn’t care much for the boxes that contained clothes, but she will appreciate them when she starts back to school this week. I think Maggie liked her first Christmas. She didn’t quite have the hang of opening her gifts, but you could see the excitement in her eyes. I found it hard to shop for Maggie. I had to find toys that we didn’t already own but were the right age range for her. I could have bought tons of stuff for Izzy, but I had to try to keep it even between them and not go broke in the process.

After we were done at our house we headed up to the Hunter side and did it all again. Izzy and Maggie cleaned up… coming home with a new toy box (which is now full!), 2 play-doh sets, a new Disney Princess play center for Mags, and lots of other cool things. Luke & I, we got new (and much needed) silverware. I know it is Christmas, not a wedding shower, but that is what we asked for. Now we have more than 5 forks and everything matches! We had planned on only staying for a few hours, but stayed until almost 2 in the afternoon. A nap for Izzy was out of the question by this point.

We headed to the Baker side around 2:30. Luke dropped us off and went home to unload the loot from Grammy and Grand Davey and grab a few things for the rest of the day. Izzy started getting a bad case of the gimmies and started asking for more presents. I had to remind her that it wasn’t all about the presents, but she is 3 after all. I helped mom get dinner on its way, Luke returned, and away we went with more gift opening. Izzy was a mad woman, trying to open everything under the tree. I saw shades of Terry, when he use to rip into gifts without checking the tag and then be the proud recipient of a nice girly item. I had to tell her to slow down, take a deep breath, and read the tag. The hit toys from Grandma and Papaw were Izzy’s vanity and Maggie’s ball popper. Luke & I received another set of silverware, and will be keeping it, as well as many other gifts. We stayed and played “Apples to Apples” until both of our children were having complete breakdowns and we packed it in for the night.

New Year’s Eve was uneventful. In light of Luke’s recent broken rib (please, never take out the trash, in dress shoes, after it has snowed ) he was drugged up on pain killers and I was drinking pre-made margaritas while we played Super Mario Bros for the Wii. We watched the ball drop, played some more Wii and went to bed. Party central!

Uncle Brad turned 30 on Sunday. Unfortunately both of their children were sick, so his big birthday trip was cancelled. I sure hope Laney and Big Will are feeling better. Sick children are no fun.

This has gone on long enough. I hope your Christmas and New Year’s celebrations were delightful. We have a lot to look forward to in 2010.

P.S. Maggie still doesn’t have any teeth. Not sure what the Christmas Eve-eve thing was all about.