April 13

...is our current appointment for the pediatric sleep specialist. Pray for a cancellation so we can get in earlier. He only does appointments on Mondays...hence the delay.

This Week in Photos

She looked so grown up laying on the floor like this playing with her toy.
The only thing missing was the feet in the air!

That ballerina leg at it again. It's getting quite good!
(it also likes to attempt to rest on the Entertainment Center, but it's just a little too high)

this morning...
she was my little secretary taking notes about what we were going to do today.

A typical night at our house

Someone wanted to know what a typical night looked like...while they are not the same every night, there are typical similarities. So, here's what last night looked like:

6:45pm asleep
7:30pm coughing fit (she lost her paci, but went right back to sleep)
8:00pm I don't remember, but I know she fussed, but went back to sleep on her own
9:30pm coughing again...needed me to shush for a few minutes
11:00pm fussing...needed me to shush for a few minutes
12:10am fussing in her sleep...but went back to sleep on her own
1:40-3am awake. Very, very awake. I started rocking around 2am as it was clear she was not going to back to sleep on her own.
3:07am I put her in bed, sleeping
3:20am woke up, but clearly tired. Standing in her bed. I started rocking.
3:25am fell back to sleep, I kept her in the rocker with me
4:10am decided it was time to wake up, despite hardly being able to keep her eyes open.

It doesn't seem to matter if she's asleep at 6:30 or as late at 7:15pm, she's still up sometime around 4am. This weekend when DH was on sleep duty, she was up around 320 each morning. Yes, 3:20 A-M. ugh.

So, as you can see...I get very little sleep. I've been awake since 1:40am and to say I'm tired is an understatement. DH went off to work despite both of us having pink eye (and he should've stayed home, but what do I know about pink eye?). I came down with it yesterday morning, and the doctor never called me back yesterday nor did the pharmacy. DH woke up with it this morning. I'll call the doctor again this morning.

Hopefully, I'll get a short nap when she goes down this afternoon. But, nap time usually is her only sleeping 40-60 minutes in her bed, but then she goes back to sleep in my arms in the rocker. She's been sleeping about 2 hrs in the afternoon and typically refuses morning naps. I might try one this morning though, around 530 or so depending on how crabby she is. The last several days it doesn't really matter what time I try it, she fights it and never does go to sleep. Today I was supposed to go into the office to see everyone, but called yesterday to say we weren't coming since I've got pink eye. So, we're just hanging around the house today...it could be a REALLY bad morning. Who knows, though. I guess she stays awake simply by not stopping...she's constantly moving. Constantly.

I called the sleep specialist yesterday...they said I should hear something from them by Friday. Apparently, they have a doctor look at the information the pediatrician submitted and go from there. I don't know. Anyways, I'm praying we hear soon and can get in within the next 2 weeks or so.

sleep

is almost non-existent at our house right now. Well, I guess I should say that hasn't been good, although the last night was better. At any rate, I hit my peak of tolerance on Wed. Poor Megan has just not been getting enough rest, which means we're not getting enough rest (okay mostly me). When you combine those 2 things together--it's really not pretty any way you look at it. So, I called the doctor on Wed and saw her yesterday.

The great thing about the appointment was that she was stumped. I think she was impressed with how much we have been doing to make sleep a better experience for Megan (and us, of course!). There were things we were doing that she didn't even ask about--whether that meant that she hadn't thought of that or she hadn't gotten that far to ask if we'd tried it, I don't know--but she was definitely stumped. And we didn't even discuss how to get her to sleep past 4am. Of course the variable to we do not know is Megan's genetic history with sleep disorders. We also talked about getting her off formula, the bottle, her eating as well as this runny nose/cold/allergy thing Megan seems to have started on Wed. She was surprised how particular Megan is (like she won't drink out of the sippy cup with a yellow lid) and chuckled at some of her antics. Since she is not drinking enough formula (despite being offered it 3x a day), she wants us to just leave everything else as it is.

Ultimately, I feel like I've been given a shot in the arm...it was a great confirmation to see that the doctor was completely stumped. But most importantly, she gave us a referral to a pediatric sleep specialist. I'm anxious to get in and see him to see what answers/solutions he has for us. Honestly, I think he's going to tell us she has a disorder. Maybe not, but I think he will. The answer I don't know is what the treatment is for it and whether we have to just hang on until she outgrows it. (Lord help us if that's the answer!)

Consequently, although I am still VERY tired, I'm encouraged that we are on the road to an answer.

Misc photos

Megan is so wiggly now, we simply wrap up in the towel for a few minutes, then get dressed in the bathroom as I'm following her around trying to get her dressed.
Thank goodness the bathroom is small!

Snuggling with dolly--who's very popular right now.

The sight today:
She saw a book on the floor by her chair...had to read it and have dolly close while I was getting her tray and food ready.

videos

For those who have never had the pleasure of watching Megan eat her peas...here's a video I took right before Christmas.



more to follow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun with Horsey

Megan got this horse for Christmas. This morning she was giving dolly a ride. I asked her to smile for the camera...this is the face she gave me. Oh my what a ham!

We are getting up before 4am. Again. She's working on her 2 year molars. The gums on the bottom feel like the teeth have almost cut through. Hopefully this set won't take as long as the last 2 sets of teeth!

She is fully into size 18 months and some 24 month tops. It's hard to believe how much she's grown up...and so fast! I'm trying to prepare myself for a 2 year old...hard to believe it's almost here! When we go shopping now, she wants to walk into the store. And if you try and pick her up so that you can get past the traffic (who are not so patiently waiting for you to pass), she gets mad and screams an ear deafening scream. That's my big girl.

The Dancer

I have to blog this...and wish I could get the whole thing on video...so far, no luck.

Megan loves to dance. It's so funny (and cute!!!)! She starts off all rambunctious--stomping her feet, leaning side to side (lasts about 30 seconds, if that!)...but by the time the music gets going, she's simply holding her hands out in front of her and slowly moving them up and down. Think go-go dance or the dance they do on the commercial they "film" on the movie That Thing You Do. It's so cool, calm, almost 80s techno like. IT'S SO FUNNY! And incredibly cute.

I think I have the beginning part on video, she just started the last part within the past week or so.

Updates

Like the new look? I Love it!!! Thanks to Sasha at Princess Blogs for updating it for me--with very little direction! I only asked that it be cheerful and that I liked coral and pink. She took it from there. She and Ashton are honing their blog design skills and are updating blogs for free--contact them if you are interested in an update. You can click on their "button" in the right hand column. It will take you to their blog which has their email addresses on it.

We've been so busy...not sleeping well the last few days, I'm finally feeling better, Megan's doing pretty well with school and we're transitioning to one nap from 2. The nap transition is hit or miss...when you get up before 5am, it's really hard to wait until noon to take a nap. But, she needs to only be taking one nap for school...so we're working on it.

We celebrated Chinese New Year last night with the playgroup (which we rarely have time to attend). Here's Megan in our "practice" dress up for dinner. Then a group photo...which is not the best, but you can see there were a lot of families present!

Practice dress up..

White Swan playgroup

One year ago today...

We received "the call" at 2:12 pm from our SW, Rachael!!!! I was carrying my cell phone with me everywhere so I wouldn't miss that long awaited call. When it finally came, just hearing Rachael say "Kris?" made me break into tears, get all shaky and make my mind go blank! I couldn't believe it was FINALLY the day! We got so few details...but did find out that she was very little just 24 inches tall and weighed a whopping 12.5 lbs! A few hours later, we opened our email to see these precious photos.



And today she's doubled her weight and grown about 7 inches! Who would have known that her hair would grow in curly...that she's have so much personality...that we could be SO IN LOVE!

She is our "Sweets", our "Meg-alicious", our "Meg-pie". In every way a perfect fit for our family. I am still overwhelmed by the awesomeness of how she joined our family. We are so blessed and eternally grateful.

Fun at the park

This weekend we stopped at the park for some family fun.

Okay, so this was AFTER the park

Daddy & Megan by the slide

How sweet...

Today Megan & I stopped at an outdoor play area at the mall
I happened to have the camera from our weekend fun

Goodbye, Mr. President

Saw this awesome video on Debbie's blog...thought I'd share!

I'm still recovering from bronchitis, I'll post more about Megan later.