Morning Mischief

Whitney is a notoriously early riser.  Over the years she's caused the appearance of more than a few dark circles under my eyes due to her morning habits.    Sometimes she'll get up before any of the rest of us and quietly look for something to do.  This can lead to no good.  So Melanie does her best to listen for any sign of noise from Whitney's room.

One day last week I was getting ready for work well before first light.  Melanie thought she heard Whitney getting up and since I was up, she asked me to go take a look.  As I walked softly down the hall in the dark, I didn't hear any movement from Whit's room.  But all of the sudden I saw a flash of light up ahead.  When I got to the end of the hallway, I looked out the window to see what had made the flash.  I assumed there was a police car or some other emergency vehicle out on the street in our neighborhood.  When I looked, everything was dark and peaceful.

Just then there was another flash of light.  It came from behind me, inside Whitney's room.  So I slowly opened the door and peaked in.  In the darkness, I could just make out Whitney in the covers of her bed.  She was happily taking pictures with our digital camera.  She giggled, pressed the button and the flash went off again.

My guess is that Whitney woke up well before anyone else and went looking for something to do.  On the kitchen counter she found her phone, which she knows she's not allowed to use in the morning before school, and the camera, which also has a screen and looks pretty fun to play with.  She grabbed it and headed back to room to play with her new toy.  She quietly closed her door and climbed into bed and began to take pictures.  I'm not sure how long she played with the camera, but there were about 100 pictures on the memory card when I looked.  Most were blurry shots of her knees.  So she had been playing for a while.

Whitney and I both had a good laugh as we looked at the pictures and then it was time to get ready for school. She's getting sneaky enough in the morning that I can't wait to see what she decides to do next while the rest of the family is sleeping.

Tonsillectomy Success

Whitney was finally healthy enough to have her tonsils taken out last Monday. She had to be to the hospital by 2:30 in the afternoon for the pre-op physical. Thankfully, she didn't have a fever and her lungs were clear. Those were the requirements we were worried about since she'd had a cold and/or flu for the last month.

We visited a bit with the ENT who did the work before Whitney went in. He reassured us that this would be a big help to her. Whitney had some Valium to calm her before going into the OR. This made her happy to see everyone. Even the nurses and her ENT got a smile and a wave. Usually her reaction isn't quite as welcoming. Poor kid's just been poked and prodded too much over the years.

The surgery itself took about 45 minutes. During that time the ENT removed her tonsils, ensured Whitney's adenoids hadn't regrown and placed a new tube in her right eardrum. Everything went smoothly and before we knew it, Whitney was in a recovery room sleeping soundly.

The nurse explained to me that after a tonsillectomy, the wounds are cauterized instead of stitched and it made me think just how much Whit's throat was going to hurt when she woke up. Whit was pretty agitated when she came to. Once efforts to give her some Lortab orally failed, the nurse gave her some in her IV and Whitney calmed down nicely.

Because Whitney's so small and frail the plan was to keep her hospitalized overnight to ensure there wasn't any continuing bleeding and that she was taking food and fluids orally. So Tuesday morning Whitney began taking liquids and some slushy via mouth. She took her Lortab dose orally as well. That satisfied the requirements for discharge and Whit was home just after lunchtime.

Whitney's improvement over the last week has been slow. She's been very reluctant to eat or drink because of the pain. Melanie has helped keep her hydrated using an oral syringe. Finally, in the last couple of days, Whit's felt comfortable enough that she's drinking from a glass again. And she's feeding herself some soft foods. She's getting sick of them though and keeps trying to sneak a chip or carrot at meal times when we're not looking. Hopefully, she'll be back to the foods she loves soon.

The doctors told us that it would be a two week recovery and I believe she's pretty well on target. Tylenol and ibuprofen seem to be managing her pain well enough now. The good news is that I can tell a huge difference in how well Whitney is breathing. Her airways are much more open and clear. This is leading to more restful sleep and hopefully a few less illnesses as well. All in all, we're grateful the experience is behind us and thankful Whitney's recovery has been smooth. I'm looking forward to better health for her on the way.

Thanks, everyone, for all the well wishes during the process of getting Whit ready for surgery and for all the help with Whitney and our other kids since then.

Strange Sleep Habits

One thing I've observed in Whitney and heard a lot about from other 1p36 parents is strange sleep habits. I'm not sure what exactly causes the abnormal sleep patterns in my little girl, but they sure create some interesting situations.

I know for a fact that Whitney is awake during the night, and sometimes for extended periods. Sometimes she'll stay in her room and play. Melanie and I find toys and things out in the morning. Other times Whit will go exploring. I'll never forget one night I awoke from a very deep sleep at about 3 am to find Whitney standing over me in the darkness. Talk about stopping your heart.

But no matter what happens during the night, wake up time in the morning is always prompt. Whit's body clock is set to go off between 6:30 and 7:00 am every day. Which doesn't exactly delight Melanie, but it means I usually get to give Whit a hug before I head out for my workday. I very much enjoy that. I could delude myself into thinking that Whit gets up at that hour with the express purpose of giving me a hug before I leave, but I know the real reason behind it. Sesame Street airs at 6 am on our local PBS station and I usually put it on for Whitney before I leave. Whitney and Elmo are pretty tight.

Often all the night time partying and early mornings get to be too much for Whitney. We regulary find her fast asleep someplace in the house after playing with her toys. This happened the other afternoon with a funny twist. Whitney was upstairs playing and Melanie went up to check on her. Whitney had gotten tired and decided that her pink mesh dirty clothes hamper would make a good tent to sleep in. So she knocked it over, crawled inside and was fast asleep when Melanie found her. She looks pretty comfortable to me. Maybe I'll have to try something similar the next time I need a snooze.

New Bedroom

To make room for the arrival of her little brother, my daughter moved into her new room over the weekend. My wife has been hard at work painting two of the walls pink, buying decorations and flowery pink bedding. With all the work we noticed our little girl becoming increasingly curious about this new pink room. We kept finding her in there just looking around.

So my wife and I decided to begin telling her that we were making it into her room. We wanted to try and giver as much understanding as possible that she was moving. We hoped that it would aid in the transition. 1p36 deletion kids can be very routine-bound and a change in bedrooms had my wife and I pretty concerned.

As it turns out our fears were really unfounded. My little girl got even more curious as I moved her bed down the hall and set it up with its new pink bedding. For the first time in months I put the box springs back underneath her mattress. My daughter's long been able to climb objects higher than that but we had tried the springs under the mattress months ago and it really freaked her out. So we put them back in the basement.

My little girl loved the bed, the colors in the room and the fact that we made it just for her. She kept laughing, hugging and kissing her bed and exploring the new home for all of her stuffed animals. She slept peacefully during her nap and at night. At one point during her first night in the room, my wife actually heard her laughing.

So another milestone comes and goes. Now I have a little girl who lives in a pretty pink little room 20 feet down the hall. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot farther than the nursery right next to the master bedroom. That room, of course, is soon to be occupied by little brother.

Active Sleeper

Something else that's struck me as strange about my daughter is her recent sleeping habits. I mentioned some time ago how my wife and I moved her to a mattress on the floor so she could get in and out of bed on her own and not fall. She seems to enjoy sleeping there but her sleep is very fitful. My wife will tuck her in and the next thing we know she's turned perpendicular to her bed, kicked her blankets off and her legs are hanging off the side. Sometimes we'll hear her whimper in the middle of the night and she'll be asleep in a crawling position or even sitting straight up. Other times she'll be fast asleep on the floor clear across the room! This has been going on ever since we moved her to her "big bed" in the spring.

I don't have any other children, so I'm not very aware of what is "normal" for sleeping. My daughter seems to be doing some pretty crazy things in her sleep with the kicking, moving and crawling. I wonder if she'll calm down as she grows up or if she'll kick her way through a night's sleep for some time to come. One thing I will say is that I'm glad it's my daughter with the crazy sleeping habits and not my wife! ;-)

Night Hunger Breakthrough

As my daughter has continued to grow, her ability to eat has gotten completely outrun by the amount of energy she expends growing and crawling around getting into things all day. Her appetite has always been one of her biggest problems, but now she’s so active, she just burns through calories way too fast.

My wife and I know this because even though we feed her a snack right before bed, our little one is up crying with hunger off and on from two to six every morning. It’s not very fun for anyone involved, but I think we’ve had a breakthrough. Last night my wife decided to give her a big drink of whole milk, cream and baby rice cereal to tide her over until morning. The little one drank greedily and downed about seven ounces and then passed out again. She didn’t wake up until 7 am. She slept so long my wife almost thought something was wrong.

So needless to say, from now on we’ll be keeping a special little shake to feed our daughter at around two in the morning so she’ll go the rest of the night in peace. It doesn’t take long to feed to her. She doesn’t even have to leave the bed, but it fills her enough to make it to breakfast and increases the overall total calories she’s getting each day. I’m sure glad for a wife who’s able to think clearly at two in the morning.

Going to Bed Hungry

My daughter had a huge snack one afternoon this past week. My wife says she almost ate her weight in goldfish crackers. Trouble was when dinner time came around a couple hours later, my little one only ate a little bit of her food. I did my best to get her to take as much as she could handle, but evidently there was still a goldfish glut.

The rest of the evening went on uneventfully until bedtime. I put my daughter down at the usual time, but she wouldn't calm down. Since my wife and I are used to different bedtime troubles with our daughter, we went through the usual routine. First we checked her gums, and they were swollen. She's teething so we thought that was keeping her up. So we gave her some ibuprophen. She still fussed. So we checked her diaper again. Nope. Then we thought maybe she had some gas or indigestion. I got a warm bean bag for her tummy. Still no sleep. Finally my wife and I gave up and brought our daughter into our bed. She refused to go to sleep and continued to fuss.

Sometimes when so many different things can go wrong with a child you can't see the forest for the trees. Finally, it dawned on us that she was probably hungry. Sure enough after a bottle of Pediasure, we put her down and she went out like a light. I believe this marks the first time ever when my daughter has actually cried for food. Maybe that's why it didn't dawn on me sooner. It used to be that she would cry when I did try to give her food. Thankfully those days are gone.

I felt bad I hadn't realized sooner what the cause of her crying was. Most 21 month old children can simply tell their parents they're hungry. I guess I'll have to be more on my toes.

The New Sleeping Schedule

My little one has always been a very good little sleeper. Every since I can remember, she's been sleeping almost eleven hours at night and taking two naps during the day. This has provided my wife with some nice time during the day to nap or get some things done by herself. She's always been a little bothered by the fact that our daughter didn't sleep any later than about 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning.

Then this past weekend some switch must have been flipped inside my daughter's little body. Now she'll go to bed at the usual time, around 8:00 pm but she will sleep until around 8:00 am. She's done away with her morning naps and instead takes an earlier longer afternoon nap. I had been wondering when it's normal for children to make this kind of change and how to force my daughter to make it. But it appears that she's made the change all on her own. My wife enjoys getting a little more sleep in the morning and still has enough time to do what she needs while our little one sleeps. It's a pretty nice change.

We're still a little perplexed by what caused the change. My wife says she thinks it's because the days are getting shorter so it's darker longer in the mornings. I tend to think that it's because she's mainly eating adult foods now, which helps her not get hungry as quickly. It could also simply be because she's also getting older and doesn't need as much sleep.

It's hard to believe my daughter is now twenty months old. The time has gone by so quickly. Things just get more and more fun as time goes on.