It's About Time This One Causes Some Sleep Drama
I knew she was broken the night I went to lay Mila down in her crib and she started screaming. I immediately picked her back up and she grinned. So, I layed her back down. She screamed. We did that over and over again for about five minutes because ZOMG I AM SO EASILY AMUSED AND IT WAS AHHH-MAZING.
Happy baby!
Sad baby.
Happy baby!
Sad baby.
Happy baby!
It was because she was sick and the muck in her head was collecting then draining. She was all sorts of pissed off about it, except for when she wasn't.
I figured out a little workaround for She Who Adores Sleep Muchly that night, and all was well. Mostly. Mila managed to get some sleep, but it was under all sorts of weird conditions that she would normally find unacceptable. Cuddling? NOOOOO! NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT!
What I'm saying is that I now know that if she is in a cuddly mood at bedtime, Mila probably doesn't feel well.
The next few nights were all sorts of chaotic and awful in that very special way that is unique to the thing that is having a sick baby in the house. But, fortunately, yesterday Mila found her way through the worst of the sick and seemed ready to get back to normal at bedtime.
Bedtime is 8:30, by the way. Mila decided that about a month ago. She's very insistent that she wants to be placed in her crib at 8:30 and left alone so that she can make out with the peace and quiet for a few minutes before falling asleep. And, yes, she is most definitely my child. I just happen to make out with peace and quiet while on the couch instead of in bed.
Last night we went through our routine and I left Miss Mila to her peace and quiet. She seemed happier than she had been in DAYS and I looked forward to her finally getting a good night's sleep.
But then 9:00 rolled around and she was still awake.
And 9:30.
And 10:00.
And 10:30.
I kept watching her through the video monitor. She was all sorts of happy. She was rolling around, to and fro, chattering up a storm, and playing with her feet.
Those tiny, adorable, scrunchy feet.
She found them a few weeks ago and they have been FASCINATING ever since. The only person more obsessed with Mila's feet than Mila is me, so I get it. They're awesome and adorable. Mila is enthralled by them for her own set of reasons, I'm sure, but the top reason is they're right there! Close! The second reason is that they move! See? Wiggly feet!
She just can't get enough.
And, apparently, sometimes she can't sleep because she needs to spend hours playing with them.
I'd had quite enough of Awake Baby, so I desperately sought out a solution. I tried to cuddle her to sleep, but Mila is well enough to remember that cuddling her way to sleep is a stupid idea. I also tried laying her on the guest bed and letting the ceiling fan transfix her little mind, but even that usually dependable trick failed.
So I took her feet away from her.
Yeah, I know that sleep sac is too small, but I don't much care when I've been begging a baby to go to sleep for hours. Also, I probably should have let her keep her hands, but GO TO SLEEP, CHILD. NOW.
Obviously, she was pissed. She was so pissed that in the four minutes it took me to take that photo and post it to Instagram, she went and did this.
Sound asleep.
So that is the story of how Mila was grounded from playing with her feet forever and ever and ever.
(Until tonight when I put her in a sleep sac and she lost her ever-loving mind because WOMAN, SLEEPING IS HARD WHEN RESTRAINED BY A STRAIGHT JACKET.)
Monday, September 22, 2014
Reader Comments (5)
Charlie refused to sleep on his back and be swaddled. He was a baby Houdini! He didn't care about his feet as much but from day 1 his hands had to be free. Even in a sleep positioner doohickey Charlie managed to squirm his way onto his tummy and out of the swaddler contraptions. Even the nurses at the hospital the day Charlie was born coented on how he kept flipping over to his tummy and getting out of the burrito wrappings!
i laughed so hard at the photos...AWAKE! ASLEEP!...and then again i laughed when the very next day she was all NO to the baby burrito. she is so funny.
Ha HA! This is the cutest. I was never a big blog reader but now I won't miss a post on this one. I love seeing what Mila is up to. This made me remember when Luke discovered his feet. My poor baby girl has no idea she owns toes.
Giggles...that first pic she looks like "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??"
Her face in that first pic is priceless!!!