Sunday Ramblings
I left early last week for my LLL meeting (held at the library on base) and stocked up on some books. I haven’t been to the library for a stack of books since early last fall. It was wonderful! I got three fiction books and two non-fiction. I’ve been busy reading all weekend.
A belated thank you to Amy–the aquaphor idea helped! We still battle a rash but Aquaphor has been the best of the options we’ve tried.
The Mole is coming back!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!! I loved the first two seasons. Then the third season was a bad celebrity edition. It got interrupted by 9/11 coverage and never resumed the rest of the season. It was early in the reality TV game show phenomenon and didn’t have manufactured drama in it. And it made me use my brain to really think. I hope they stuck with what made it so good. If they pull the manufactured drama into it, I’ll be terribly disappointed. Anderson Cooper was the original host and was fabulous. I hope they found someone just as good.
Church was really nice today. They hold Easter service at a park down the street. Its nestled among several apartment buildings and many from the buildings, who don’t come to the church, came down for service and lunch. They didn’t have care for the kids, so E was with us the entire time. That is the first time in a really long time she stayed with us for the whole service. Jim had to take her back for a few minutes and she didn’t do the best job of sitting entirely still/being entirely quiet but she really did well. We sat in the back, so we’d be able to vacate quickly if we needed. Starting next week they are going to two services. The first will be a family-oriented service and the second will be the usual (kids welcome but children’s church available). I’d like to get her into service with me more but I know she also loves to be with the other kids. So I’m not sure which we’ll do.
Sleep problems with E continue but in a new development. Four weeks ago she began waking at 5:30-6:15. Every day. :yawn: If her body adjusted to this okay, I would be tired but I’d deal. But her body can’t take it! Early to rise isn’t causing her to go to bed any earlier (7ish). And it isn’t causing her to sleep any better at night (up 2-5 times). She cries from early morning on that she’s tired. By 2-3 each day, my fairly compliant child becomes monster child and usually gets carted upstairs to cool down where she often ends up crying until she’s fast asleep (which then messes with night even more). I have NO idea how to deal with it. Its not time change (we don’t change here). No disruptions to her schedule. No change in the amount of activity she gets or outside time she gets. No change to her diet. And its only getting worse. When she wakes up, she either lays in bed or gets up and plays quietly. Neither makes a difference in the rest of her day. If I could find some way to get her to sleep later, go to bed earlier and/or sleep through the night (the one I’d choose!!), I think she’d be fine. Her body just needs that extra 1-2 hours of sleep SO badly.
I wish I knew what to tell you about E’s sleeping…the only advice that I thought of was just to anticipate her meltdowns and maybe put her down for a nap right after lunch and if she won’t nap, just make her stay down for some quiet time and hope she’ll eventually nap anyway and then get her up after maybe an hour and a half and see if that helps. Have you ever had her try taking melatonin to see if that helps her sleep schedule?
Definitely a tough situation. It sounds like if she is getting up so early, she does need that afternoon nap which means that she probably needs a later bedtime. Maybe once she starts going to bed later she will start sleeping later and she can go nap free again. My guess is that she is going through a growth spurt of some kind. An evening snack might help too. Maybe she is getting up so early because she is hungry because she is growing. But I am just guessing.
Good luck. Hope your nights become more restful very soon.
So with you on manufactured drama. Either it has drama or it doesn’t. And all the crap they do to make it dramatic mostly backfires.
For what it’s worth…if you find a church using Godly Play for Sunday School…it’s AMAZING. And while I totally think kids should be wherever they want in church… E’s probably getting more faith development in an age-appropriate Sunday School program. But if it’s basic child-care versus being in church, I’d go for church as much as she can manage.
Good luck with the sleeping…