Cry it Out!

Many things have been happening over the past couple of weeks.
We have been very busy and sleep deprived lately. Matti has had us up six to seven times a night for the past month or so give or take a few nights. Matthew and I have been getting an average of four to five hours of sleep a night for almost a month now. It all came to a head last weekend when I was visiting with mom. Matti would not sleep at all. I was so tired I could hardly enjoy the weekend. Last Sunday night Matti was up about every hour on the hour crying and wanting to be held and rocked. I would pick her up, rock her until she was asleep, and put her down. She would wake up immediately and start crying again until I would pick her up. Sometimes as soon as I would pick her up she would be right back asleep again. I knew this was separation anxiety or she was dependant on me rocking and holding her while she slept. I made sure I covered all the bases-dry diaper, bottle, illness-everything was normal. Finally about 3:00am I gave up. I was completely zonked and Matti even giggled one time when I walked in her room. I finally realized I had to let her cry it out or I was not ever going to sleep again. I picked her up once last time, kiss her face, and told her it was time to go nite, nite. I put her back down and walked out of the room. Matthew was sitting up in our bed (you can see her bed from ours in her room) and I walked downstairs, turned on the TV monitor, went outside on the deck to drowned out the crying and watched her as she cried. The more she cried the more I cried. It was terrible. My heart was breaking. 45 minutes passed and finally Matti put her head down and fell asleep. I could not believe my eyes. Quiet. It is something I have not heard it a while. By then I was wide awake, but went back to bed. By 6:00am I knew there was no way I could work on Monday. My eyes were swollen and my head was pounding. Matti went to school and I slept pretty much all day on Monday. Matthew even came home from work early. The next two nights were wonderful. No night wakening at all. A couple of nights she did wake up and we did the cry it out method and she was asleep in twenty minutes with less crying and then this past Sunday night it took 10 minutes with a small amount of crying. Then tonight it took five minutes with about 2 minutes of crying. Wow, it really does work. She even sleeps later in the morning and takes longer naps during the day. She has been so pleasant. She is usually ill all day and rubbing her eyes. She has not been getting the sleep that she needs which was worrisome to me. Now I think our problem is solved for now. Cry it out really does work, but it is not for the faint of heart. It does suck!!!!!
Now onto milestones..
Matti has been really doing well eating her finger foods. She eats very ripe bananas pieces, carrots, peaches (cooked), apples (cooked), Cheerios, Puffs, etc. I am still having a hard time with the meats, but I am not worried. Feeding time has been fun. I can put food on her tray and she pretty much feeds herself. I usually clean the kitchen and have conversations with her. I still want feeding time to be special. I will usually sit down with her and show her how to do things. It is so fun to watch her as she learns more and more everyday. Her bottles have decreased to four, 8 ounce bottles a day, but she is still getting the 20-30 ounces that is recommended for her. She is a little over the average -32 ounces. She is a hungry girl. She has started eating three meals a day with a morning snack and afternoon snack. I also give her 2 ounces of apple juice mixed with water at lunch.
Matti is pulling up on everything. She has even started to "Cruise" a little this weekend. She really loves to explore the house now. She is such a ball of energy. She gets so excited sometimes she just squeals and almost jumps right out of my arms. She is also clapping and will dance if there is music on. It is so cute.
I am a little worried because I have witnessed her climbing into her toy box tonight and all I can think about is her climbing out of her crib. Boy, I am really paying the price now!!!! HA
Matti also loves to babble and carry on baby talk conversation. She says mama, dada, bye bye, and bah bah. Sometimes she even makes up her own baby sounds that really crack me up. She will run all these sounds together and you would think she was speaking a foriegn language. The funny thing is she will make eye contact when she is taking to you and expect you to anwser. She is so serious sometimes.
Bath time is now a hassle. I finally had to give up using the sling because Matti kept rolling over so now I put a little water in the tub and let her play. It is harder to wash her but at least her face is not in the water. She is going to be a little fish. It does not matter if I dump water on her head to rinse her hair it simply does not phase her.
We are finally getting teeth. I feel lumps on her bottle gum. She is gnawing on everything. I am wondering if she will get both bottom teeth at the same time. I guess we will see within the next few weeks.
Well all that said, I have one funny little Daycare story to tell. The other day I dropped Matti off and school and as I was putting her things away I saw her and another little boy named Abraham standing at another little girls crib (which that little girl was in her crib sleeping). Abraham kind of stood back, but Matti had pulled up on the crib, stuck her hand through the rail, and pulled the poor girls paci out of her mouth. Matti started chewing on it (Yuck) and Abraham looking all innocent just walked away with his head down like he knew they were going to be in trouble. I am sure I will get many calls from school about this child. She is already into mischief.
I have a few clips and pic's.



Relaxing at Nana's



Rough Day. Matti completely passed out while playing



Matti drinking out of her sippy cup