23 months. The last time we will refer to her age in months. The last month until she is “officially” not a baby anymore. She may have been a toddler since she turned one, but…I feel like two is officially toddler. Just look at my girl. Sassy, silly, sweet girl.
Most of the time. And boy-oh-boy does she let us know every day just how much of a mind of her own she has. I know it’s to be expected, but the tantrums have gotten worse, if that is even possible. Screeching, screaming tantrums.
Oh, and sleep? HA!!! It appears that we are in the midst of our very first sleep regression.
And. It. Sucks.
We used to do our nighttime routine, and I’d lay her down, still awake, and she may fuss a bit, or lay there and play awhile, but she’d go to sleep. On her own. And rarely ever wake up before morning. Those days seem lifetimes away right now. I know how lucky I was, that my sweet baby slept long stretches from the start. And we didn’t go through the 4 and 8 month sleep regressions (or any others), no teething sleeplessness or fussing. Do I say that to brag? No. I say that to point out that while we got lucky in the beginning, we are in sleepless hell right now.
I say it’s the 2 year sleep regression, that started 6 weeks early and happened to start just a week or so after I was gone for a week. She screams bloody murder – hysterical – if I try to lay her down and leave the room. Naps or bedtime. I have to rock her. Sing to her. Lay her down and pat her, endlessly it feels like sometimes. And she’s waking up, most nights, anywhere from 1-3 times. And waking up for the day in the 5 o’clock time-frame. I. am. dying.
It was so bad in the beginning that she (for the first time) started trying to climb out of her crib. And, one night she was successful. Climbed over and fell out before I could run to her room and stop her. It was terrifying, and I felt super helpless – both that I couldn’t get to her in time and that I didn’t feel comfortable doing anything where one of us wasn’t close-by in the event we saw her trying again. Thankfully she was not hurt, and we dropped the bed the next night, only to find that we needed to drop it all the way to the floor to keep our little monkey in. So, climbing out of the crib issue solved – for now. Sleeping issue – notsomuch.
Sometimes she goes to sleep relatively easily. Sometimes the night time wakes are short and she goes back down easy. Other nights…it’s 10 o’clock before I can get her to sleep, and the 2 a.m. wake ups last until 4 a.m. Until my lower back aches from bending over her crib to pat her back and I’m about to lose it from the frustration and exhaustion. Only twice in her little life have I ever called for reinforcements – and both were in the last week or so.
The separation anxiety is strong with that one, and she seems to be more cooperative for daddy. He can get her down or back to sleep and actually leave the room without a sudden wake up and freak out. And you might be thinking, well…let him put her to bed then! That’s what I thought, too. Except, she freaks out if leave the room and he stays. She cries for me if he goes in when she wakes. Granted, he can get her to settle down if it’s during a wake up, and she did just fine while I was gone two nights last week (out of sight, out of mind), but if I am there – whole ‘nutha ball game, folks.
Someone tell me that it will pass soon. This phase. Because, I don’t know how much longer I can stumble through this exhausted fog I’m in.
Does it make me the worst mom ever that when I had to be away for work 2 nights last week that I was so looking forward to 2 nights to go to sleep and stay asleep?? I missed her, of course, but…SLEEP!!! Glorious sleep!!
And then, they came to join me at the resort I was at, and we spent the weekend. Our first weekend in a hotel since we had her. Her first time in a hotel room. It was cute to see her reaction. She definitely didn’t quite understand. Kept asking to go to the living room, like she would at home, and it just didn’t make sense to her when we told her we were in the living room, or that there wasn’t one. She’d go to the door thinking she could get out and go to the living room. Silly girl.
She loved running up and down the hallway, but did not like going back into the room. Not a fan of the elevators – i had to pick her up and hold her each time we got on. But, she did like the kiddie pool, the sandy beach area at the pool, and the little tubes with bottoms that she could sit in and float the lazy river.
She didn’t much want to sleep there either, and being in the same room was definitely a challenge. Getting her down was a challenge each night and the first night she woke up THREE times. 12, 2, and 4 a.m. Then up for the day at 5:45. Sheesh kid. However, she did sleep the whole second night. Until 6:30. I’ll take it!
She loves to swim – as long as she can touch the bottom. She loves her sunglasses, and “Mommy’s d’ink”, she’s discovered what sugar really is and she really likes it. Oh, joy. Juice, treats, and especially popsicles. We make our own popsicles so we can control the amount of sugar, and that helps. But boy is she persistent and insistent when she wants one. Well, when she wants anything, really. But she’s also really loving fruit lately – more than just one kind, and that makes me happy.
We made brownies together for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it was the cutest. I’ve been looking forward to her being big enough to bake with. She didn’t really “help” this time, other than licking the spatula after I had put the batter in the pan, but it was precious nonetheless. Just look at the smile in the top right picture up there. Pure bliss.
She’ll be moving up a class at her daycare just before her birthday and J and I are dreading it. She started at this daycare, in her current class, when she was 16 months old. 2 months younger than the other kids in the class, but they did it to avoid having to transition her twice in a short period of time (once from her old daycare to this new one, then to a new class a couple of months later)l, and she has really thrived in there. And we all three LOVE her teachers. They don’t want her to move up either. I know she can’t stay in there forever, but…still. And, on top of that, her little boyfriend will be leaving at the same time. We’ve known for some time he’d be leaving, but I just can’t bear the thought of it. Ugh. I want to cry just typing about it.
So, from my novel you can see that there has been a lot going on, and a lot coming up. I’ve been a major slacker about planning her birthday party. Finding a location has proven to be a challenge, that may result in no party. I mean, J and I would have a little party with her, of course. But the big, over-the-top party may not happen. If it does though, it’ll be Minnie Mouse themed. I do have all the things planned out in my head, but with no location that works well for late August (because, hot as an inferno and outside don’t work) I just don’t know.
I’ll give you the full report in next month’s post. In the meantime, please send all your sleepy dust and tantrum diffusing vibes my way.
Leave a Reply