302 + 204 + 71 weeks
Good news: Mila can read!
She’s actually been a decent reader for several months, but it’s taken some time for her to feel comfortable with it. That’s pretty typical for her. She waits until she has almost completely mastered something, then just takes right off. Only a few weeks ago she was still saying she couldn’t read a book to me because, “I don’t know all the words!” Now she reads to us every morning and is making huge improvements daily.
It is fantastic!
***
Bad news: Ryan is on a sleep strike.
He has always been my best napper. Suddenly, though, he has decided he doesn’t need naps. He hasn’t had a decent one in almost a week. You can imagine what that’s doing to both of our moods.
Worse than the lack of naps is the nighttime screaming. Oh. My. Goodness. He has the sweetest raspy voice these days…because he cries and screams for an hour or more every night. He’ll go down easily, but every night around 10 or so he wakes up hollering. Even if I go in to snuggle him back to sleep, as soon as I lay him in his bed he loses his dang mind, even if he’s out cold when I put him down. The only way he’ll go to sleep and stay that way is if he cries, and most nights he’ll cry for an hour or more.
Last night between his shenanigans and his sister’s potty accident (which is another issue entirely…) I didn’t get to sleep until 1 AM. I am so tired. So very tired. And needless to say, my mantra for the month is pretty much shot.
I’m at my wits’ end, guys. I have no idea what his deal is and no idea how to make it better. If anyone has suggestions, please share. We can’t continue like this. I was just getting to a point where I felt decently well-rested.
DON’T MAKE ME GO BACK.
OH NO! No, no, no!
Ry-bro, go to sleep. It’ll be juuuuust fine if you GO TO SLEEP!
Gah, Jen, I’m so sorry! I cannot imagine the sleep deprivation frustrations and feels. Lawsy.
xox
Oh no!!
Dude Jade is going throguh a weird phase like this with sleep only she’ll come wake me up because her binki fell (trust me, that bink is a whole other issue that I am waiting to deal with as long as possible) or anything that she can easily fix herself but won’t.
No advice here really……but know that you are NOT alone!! #mobiesunite!
Ugh. I’m so sorry. Lack of sleep makes everything so much harder!
Without knowing exactly what you’ve tried, or may be willing to try, let me suggest just three words: “May cause drowsiness.”
In my house growing up, it was Dimetapp, and when Rigby was that age, children’s Benadryl saved our bacon on more than one night. Granted, there’s no recommended dosage on the label for kids under 2, but the triage nurse on the other end of the phone assured Lydia late one night that half a teaspoon is perfectly safe for toddlers. If you’re at the point where you’re willing to try anything that works to shorten his crying jags and get some sanity back, you could do a lot worse. On the other hand, if off-label medication use is a bridge too far, I also totally get it.
I’ve definitely considered it. Fortunately, last night was WAAAAAAY better. Maybe we’ve turned a corner. Maybe it was a fluke. But I’m not ruling anything out if he slips back into banshee mode.