5.23.09 Scales, Knees & Sleep

I've been counting calories for over a week. If you can believe it the scale says that I've already lost 5 pounds! It hasn't been easy. There are days when I feel so hungry I don't know what I'll do with myself. Then I realize that I haven't drunk enough water. I had no idea how water helps with hunger but in my case if I skimp on the water I feel starved.

Today Hannah fell for the first time and skinned up her knees pretty badly. It's not that she hasn't fallen before, especially when she was learning how to walk and then running. This was the bloodiest falls she's had. She was outside in her church dress running down our lane when I realized she was wearing some dress up sandals that she always trips in. I was saying "Hannah be careful" as soon as careful came out of my mouth she tripped and fell on her knees and rolled all the way up to her face. I was sure that she would have a bloody face. But she didn't just bloody knees. She cried very hard. Robert heard her cry and came running out too. I brought her in and looked at her bloody knees. Cleaned them up and put Neosporin on each with large band aids. She felt so badly that she got a little woozy and said she had to poop. Robert helped her to the toilet. She sat in the bathroom, her little lips were pale and I could see her eyes going vacant. She was on the verge of fainting. Robert put his arms around her and I ran to get her some juice to drink. She pulled out of it pretty well after that. Poor little girl. Now she's walking funny because it hurts to stand straight.

We are allowing Noah to cry to sleep. Every time we allow for variability Noah sleeps worse and worse. Robert's been encouraging me to let him cry again at night. I hasn't stuck the last times we've tried to let him cry, but I know he's right . I just lose so much sleep over it and he's so random with his wake ups that it'll often take me by surprise when he starts to wake up after sleeping for an hour. We reviewed parts of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and I realized that on a good night he wakes up every 2 hours all night long and on a bad night every 45 minutes or less. He's not an infant and he should be going back to sleep. So we are letting him cry but this time I'll turn off the monitor between feedings so that I can sleep and wake up every 4 hours, check on him and turn on the monitor again until he wakes up. I realize it seems cruel but he can sleep and he needs to learn how to do it more consistently. He's seven months old. I love him so much. This is soooo hard to do. But I refuse to let him continue sleeping poorly. I will not drive him around in the car to sleep or cosleep or hold him all day. I don't have that luxury and or maybe the patience to wait until he's three to sleep well.