I suppose I could blame the lack of posts & comments & general internet lurking on the usual lack of sleep excuse. I wouldn't exactly be lying. We've had a crapload of sleep issues going on lately, going back to the holiday illnesses & the 24 hour nursing marathons. Plus the molars, the growth spurt & some crazy night terrors that have left me shell shocked. Seeing your tiny daughter in a trance-like state screaming loud enough to wake the dead (I now have witnesses to the volume level - they know I'm not exagerrating - right mumsy?) & not responding to your voice is really, really weird.
And tiny she is. We recently had her 15th month well baby check & vaccines. During the RSV episode where she refused solid food & then taking her time getting back on track, Doodle Bug lost over a pound. She is small to begin with. People are always remarking on how cute it is to see such a wee baby walking so well, thinking she's around 10 months old, so I was really curious to see where she was on the charts.
- Weight = 18.06 lbs = > 3rd %ile
- Height = 29" = > 10th %ile
- Head = 46.5 cm = 75th %ile according to the nurse but more than 97th %ile according to the internet calculator
That's right, our toddler is kinda a freak. It doesn't look like she has a ginormous noggin but apparently we are fooling ourselves. I like to think she's just brainy. Such is a mother's unconditional love, but really, her head doesn't look overly huge to me. She does seem little & some days a bit thin but hey, we're getting great use out of her wardrobe. She now fits into 12-18 month tops, but her legs are sort of short so there's a couple pairs of 6-12 month size jeans that she is still wearing. I think one pair are hand-me-downs & the other I paid $4 for. Woo hoo! Those savings of course are getting spent on Gymboree & disposable diapers. Ya that's right, I gave up on the cloth ones, just like everyone said I would. Want me to congratulate you or something? Bite me. Go on, I'm tasty.
(Hey at least I tried. I might try again if there's ever another go at this baby thing, but who knows if that'll ever happen. Right now this one is sticking crackers down my shirt into my bra. I don't know if I can take much more. Anyway if we do cloth again, I'd prefer to use all Fuzzi Bunz rather than the prefolds. Less bulk & so comfortably soft.)
Anyway, since Doodles is so small she still seems kind of babyish & therefore, innocent & vunerable. Which is part of the way I justify in my mind the fact that I am still nursing her to sleep, keeping her in bed with us & being wrapped around her delicate little fingers. As our dependence on one another eases I am finding this more & more exhausting, so now we are looking for a way to transition her to a more independent sleep. Before we moved I used to be able to put her down in the crib or on the bed & she'd fall asleep on her own. There were plenty of times I nursed her down because it was a sure thing but at least we knew she was capable of self soothing. With the stress of the big move & then the move across town I ended up nursing her to sleep every time. Then when we were sick & she wasn't eating I was nursing around the clock - it was like going back to the newborn stage (not to mention the evil threat of thrush from the antibiotics). It has eased off a bit since then but now it seems she's forgotten how to soothe herself back to sleep without me. I also used to be able to stay half asleep when I nursed her in the middle of the night & even pass out before we were finished. Now though, I can't seem to get comfortable & won't fall asleep until after she's done. Two weeks ago I was averaging about 3 hours of sleep a night. Now that the molars have broken through I'm getting more but she's still waking up about 3 times a night.
I don't mind it too much but it would be nice if she could figure out how to get back to sleep without my boobs. And without screeching. Sugar Daddy is capable of putting her down but not without a lot of crying. So... over the next little while we'll be attempting some No Cry Sleep Solutions (I like to call it the Pantley Removal Technique - get it? Ya I'm lame.). I'm expecting crying of course, but hopefully the screaming will be kept to a minimum.
Another part of the transition plan is to give her her own space. A place that is fun, comfortable & organized. Her room up till now has had the crib (filled with toys since she won't sleep in it anymore), the double bed without the frame, a large toy chest & books piled under the crib. It wasn't bad, but it's been driving me crazy. Not having a place for everything stresses me out & I have this thing about organizing books. I've been searching for a bookcase since we moved in. I wanted to do something girly & Pottery Barn-ish with white furniture & was hoping to persuade Grammy to make one of her fancy quilts. I tried searching for something cheaper because, well, I'm cheap (must be the Scottish genes), but everything I found was crap or not the right size. We finally settled on an IKEA one but then we were hanging out at Boutique de Target one night & I found this & fell in love.Thing is, my idea of sweet white furniture would've meant purchasing a new bedframe & whatever else we ended up needing. We already had a black iron frame that came with the bed - not my ideal but decent. We also have a beautiful toy chest made by Poppy (Sugar Daddy's Daddy) that is honey pine. Anyway the grass skirt in the bedding set went nicely with the pine & the black iron matched the light fixture on the ceiling & the new fish tank (yup we now have two more pets) so I gave up on the Pottery Barn bedroom & decided to go kind of tropical. Now all the searching for the perfect white bookcase had been in vain because now I wanted something in honey pine to match the chest. Man it's hard to find a bookcase when you want one.
Then, suddenly, there it was. The perfect bookcase. Solid pine, honey colour, sturdy & totally matched the toy chest. See?
Yes the chest isn't actually being used as a toy chest, but it's full of stuff that isn't being used now & won't be for a while & the fish tank won't fit into the bookcase. This way it works as a nightstand & fish home. Hope that's ok Poppy.
Here's the bed with the Monkey Girl bedding, plus an awesome canopy from a different set under which I hung her dragonfly lights that had been over her crib in the old house. The monkeys are so cute & I just want to do the hula whenever I walk in the room.Speaking of hula.....
check out the clock.Her grass skirt & feet swing back & forth. Hillarious!
We are now teaching Freyja how to do the hula as only a white prairie girl & a guy from Newfoundland can do. My expertise resides in having watched Elvis movies & the episodes of the Brady Bunch that involved some haunted tiki idol thing. Sugar Daddy has no expertise except for maybe some drunk booty shaking.
Anyway, that's it. The room feels good now, it's organized & I can breathe. We just need to put a bit more art on the walls & get the matching monkey lamp & it's all done.
Now if only she'll sleep through the night in there, we'd be all set.
