Lots of quiet days at home with a few trips out and about - mostly mundane things like visits to the 
supermarket!Alice is teething, lots of teeth are coming at once - about 8 I think, premolars and molars. Owch! During the day she's fine, you wouldn't know that her gums were swollen and tight with teeth. But nighttimes are different.
Sleep has been a big non-event in this house recently - especially at night. Alice had been in a really good and effective routine - upstairs just after 6pm, alternate nights a bath then babygrow, bottle in the rocking chair, baby sleeping bag and a kiss before going to bed with the mobile projecting lights onto the ceiling and some music playing. In bed for 6.45 and asleep by 7.15. Unfortunately this routine was disrupted the week before Christmas - whether it's the disruption over Christmas or teething, the routine is not working at the moment. Some nights it's taking Alice over 3 hours to go to sleep, nearly every night she is waking as I go to bed, screaming and screaming before I bring her into my bed where she'll continue to cry gently for a while before kicking me through the night and then using me as a jungle gym at about 5.30am (usually she wakes at about 8am). So by 6am she's back in her own bed (brief scream, less than 60 seconds) before sleeping until 8.30am - by which time I'm bruised and exhausted. Not fun. Not pretty. Not going to continue if I can help it.
So what am I doing about it? Keeping life simple. Keeping to a routine. Staying with her and trying to calm her when she screams. Not taking her into my bed (we both suffer).
Is it working? Well for the past 2 nights she's been asleep by just after 8pm (an improvement but not good enough). Last night she pitched an absolute fit, screaming, raging, etc, I went to her and put her in my bed to calm down - within minutes of being moved she was completely fine, flirting, giggling and ready for fun.
An adoption issue? Problems with attachment? Or usual control issues from almost toddlers? I don't know, probably a combination of all 3.
[I know that this is fairly personal stuff - I'm sharing it so that those readers who are also contemplating or have undertaken adoption will be aware of the issues as well as the wonders.]
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1 comment:
Ah bless her so many teeth at once!! issues at bed time are common at this age , my girls screamed until they were sick they fought sleep up until they were almost 3, yet my boys love sleep .
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