Jailbird Chronicles

Last weekend threw any progress we made last week into oblivion. FiG had a fever for three days and stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday this week. On Tuesday we took two 3-hour naps together. I think it helped get both of us caught up. She's better now and actually slept well last night, as did A-Mo and I. She refused to eat dinner so I was expecting her to get up in the wee morning hours asking for a snack. She didn't and was relatively pleasant this morning. Drop off at school was easier too. Sleep is a beatiful thing. It has a profound impact on her mood and behavior. Mine too, for that matter.

I've been talking to several moms and all of them currently have or have lived through sleep issues with their kids. I'm getting lots of ideas. Just tonight, MochaMom told me one of her kids likes to have a flashlight in his bed with him. She got one that winds up and doesn't use batteries - brilliant! I will try it with FiG.

It seems like this week our focus is on the amount of stimulation FiG gets. There's not much we can do about what happens at school....we aren't in a postion to take her out of school, so we have to work with it. But we've taken everything but one blanket, one pillow, and one "friend" out of her crib. MochaMom also suggested not having any music on. It could work...music doesn't seem to calm FiG anyway. Two nights ago we turned all the upstairs lights off so there wasn't any light streaming into her room. It's hard to know if it helped, but I don't think it hurt. The point is to help her understand she's not missing anything, that her audience isn't off somewhere not being entertained by her, and that it's sleep time in our house.

Well, tonight is girls night and bath night, so I'm off. Positive thoughts....positive attitude....positive.....