Wordless Wednesday-Kindness

Laid to rest

I am putting the sleep discussion to rest since some of the comments that have been left were rude, not only directly to my family, but towards other commenters as well. Thanks to those of you who left positive advice and encouragement. Your ideas will be put to use.

And to my posse of mamas (you know who you are) thanks for your friendship!

Freakishly strong-willed

I tried to get Makena back to sleeping in her crib last night by letting her cry it out. She was in her crib by 8:30 and the screaming and crying began. And it continued for most of the night. At 12:30 (yes, 4 hours later) I went in to try to calm her down and see if I could get her to lay down. I KNEW she was exhausted by this point.

Unfotunately, my presence in her room caused her to go apes**t crazy, which was why I hadn't gone in earlier. After another half hour, she quieted down a little bit but continued to fuss off and on. I tried to turn off the monitor, but I couldn't sleep and kept turning it back on to see if I could hear her. Every half hour or so, I would hear her cry out and by 3:00 a.m she was still doing this and I went back in to check on her.

She was standing up in her crib with her blanket balled up as a pillow and was leaning into the side of the crib and crib tent which was holding her up. She would doze off and her head or body would start to fall and that would wake her up and she would call out for me.

I knew she would continue this for the rest of the night and I caved and brought her in bed with me. Neither of us had gotten any quality sleep at this point and there was no way I was going to let her not sleep at all. When I picked her up, she curled right into me and was instantly asleep. I am no longer embracing the cry it out method for this child. It has worked with my other two, but I will have to come up with a different strategy for Makena. And it also won't be the "spank-her-hard-method" that was suggested to me by a commentor in my earlier post. I think most parents experience sleep issues with their children and there are some strong opinions out there. Some people may think I let her cry too long and others will say I should have just let her go all night. Parenting is the hardest job!

One thing I do know for sure is that Makena's strong will is what kept her alive and fighting when she was just a 1 pound, 6 ounce 25 week preemie.

One feeling better and one goofy as ever

Makena is on the mend. The lab results came back negative for RSV....woo-hoo! She still needs breathing treatments and has 2 days left of the oral steroids, but she was acting more like her normal self today. However, she did fall asleep on the couch tonight while the girls were waiting for me to make dinner. This has NEVER happened, so I had to take a picture. My girls have never been the kind of kids who fall asleep anywhere.

And as usual, Riley is acting as our comic relief in the house. She loves to act silly and make us laugh! Makena gets ahold of her in the end though...don't forget who the big sister is.

Sicky update

It was a long night. We were up every 2-3 hours giving Makena albuterol treatments. They really seem to improve how hard she is working to breath, although she is still breathing fast. We are watching her closely in case we need to take her back in to the pediatrician or head to the E.R. Her pediatrician did a swab for RSV, but we don't have the results yet. The doctor also prescribed prednisolone which has got to be one of the most foul tasting medicines I've ever tasted. We have to give it to her once a day for five days and we are trying to come up with inventive ways to mask the taste. Poor baby just wants to run around with her sisters but she doesn't have the energy.