Sleep Strategies and "We're Getting Old!"

Originally Written: Sunday, January 30, 2011

So, I took Saturday off for some much-needed rest.  Needless to say, Ella is still not sleeping well.  Tom and I have looked into some other possible ideas to help her sleep.

We did try to leave her bedroom light on - no luck.  She woke up, Tom turned her light on, got her back to sleep, and a half-hour later, she was up screaming bloody murder with the light on.

I did some research into baby medications.  Tom made the joke that if he invented a baby sleeping pill, he'd be the richest man on Earth.  He's probably right.

Then, I'd be the happiest wife on Earth...money AND a sleeping baby!  :)

I was watching one of those doctor shows on TV; not sure if it was Dr. Oz or The Doctors, but they were talking about people with sleeping disorders, and said the first thing you should do is look into what medications the person is taking.  Well, right now, the only "prescription" Ella is on is the multivitamin drops.  I found the listing in my Pill Book, and it didn't say anything about sleep disruptions, but it did mention nausea and irritability.

Then we wondered if what we were feeding her was causing stomach upset at bedtime.  We've been trying to transition Ella from stage 3's (and 4's, in some cases) to regular food.  I also realized we've been giving her a lot of cheese, and that can sometimes cause stomach upset, especially if she were to be lactose intolerant (we haven't had any inklings before).

We looked into Ella's bedtime routine.  We haven't been the most consistent with bedtimes; we started trying around 7:30pm, when she would first start acting tired.  Then, we steadily increased it, 8pm, 8:30pm, 9pm.  Then, we had the crib mattress lowered all the way, it took a while getting used to have to raise and lower the side.

After the first night in the newly-lowered crib, she started having problems sleeping all night.  She could sleep perfectly fine in her playpen when we'd travel or stay at a friend's, and the playpen is even lower than the crib mattress (and less comfortable, I would imagine).

My point is, we've never had a really structured bedtime routine, and maybe that's the real issue.  Maybe we should start with a set time for her to start calming down.  Maybe we should adjust the foods and drinks we allow her for dinner and before bed.

It's worth a shot.

"We're Getting Old!"  This is what Tom said to me a few days ago.  He said this because we've both taken a liking to watching PBS Specials.  We talk about them with the same amount of enthusiasm that we talk about going on a vacation, or getting Christmas presents.

We get excited when we talk about living in the Goose House in Connecticut, or going to the milk bottle ice cream shop in Massachusetts.  We get mutually disgusted when we relive the "Sandwiches You'll Like" moment when the lady eats the "brain sandwich".

And now, there's an ice cream special.  Those of you who know me well enough, know that I love ice cream.  If ice cream was a person, I would do dirty things to it, and not feel guilty the next morning.

Anyway, the special is a tad dated, because when they talk about Ben & Jerry's, they show all sorts of Rainforest Crunch merchandise, and that flavor hasn't been around since I was in, like, 8th grade (unfortunately; it was a good one!).

Also worth mentioning: there's a seasonal ice cream shop in Cape Cod, and when an attractive woman walks in, the male employees made up a code, "Check the Vanilla", so they'll all know to look.  Likewise, the female employees made up a code for cute guys..."Check the Banana" :)

And, to top off our premature aging, I went and signed up to win tickets to *drumroll please*

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW!

I used to make fun of this show, and now I want tickets???  How old am I?

Oh, just pass the Metamucil and change the channel to PBS, will ya?