I swear, this child outgrew her diapers overnight. We use cloth diapers, which I love, but it’s a big expense all up front when we have to buy new ones, so I’ve been clinging to these diapers for a veeeeery long time. They still snap around her chubby little legs and her Buddha belly, but the rise is so short and, well, they just don’t have the amount of absorbancy she needs.
I guess it’s a good thing she’s at that age where a box with shiny paper is just as much fun as what is inside because I think Santa is going to bring Moonpie a lot of diapers and not as many toys next month. I wonder if I can find a big fort-sized box to wrap them in to make up for it.
Can I just mention how odd it feels to have someone at the playground ask how old she is (17 months or almost 15 months adjusted but I don’t usually make that conversion anymore), then comment on how big she is for her age? All I can think about is holding that tiny, tiny preemie in the palm of my hand. But she’s been off the preemie charts since her 6 month checkup and at her 15 month check, she was in the 75th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Long and skinny. That’s our girl!
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have an entry in the “We’re awful parents” category. So, two weeks ago Miss Moonpie puked all over her daddy as he was rocking her to sleep. Then, she puked all over me at breakfast the next morning and she had some, um, lower GI distress as well for about 24 hours. No fever. No appetite. I called and talked to the Ped’s nurse who told me there was a stomach virus going around with those exact symptoms and to follow the usual course; keep her hydrated, offer bland food. So we did. She drank plenty, wouldn’t eat, fussed and fussed, but no more vomiting and the poops returned to a more normal state. After four days of eating the equivalent of one meal a day, we took her in to the doctor who suggested some probiotics and offering nothing but water to make sure she wasn’t filling up on her single cup of really diluted juice. He thought her tummy might still be feeling a bit iffy and wanted us to give it one more day. That night, she ate like an athlete carb-loading for an olympic event. I couldn’t get enough food in her. I joked that she had just missed her doctor and the not eating was an attempt to get us to take her for a visit. So, everything returned to normal. A few days later, I happened to get a good look in her mouth (Miss Moonpie is VERY stubborn about opening wide for anyone to take a peek and bites if you stick a finger in there. It only took a couple good chomps for me to decide not to do THAT again!). Imagine how surprised I was to see TWO molars. First of all, I had assumed the teeth came in in order, so I was expecting canines next and had been watching for those. So, my poor baby cut two molars at the same time without the benefit of any pain killers because everyone, including the pediatrician who looked in her mouth, assumed she had a tummy bug because it had the same symptoms as a bad stretch of teething. I’m just glad there weren’t any medications given for a virus she didn’t have. Sigh. Now we are awaiting the top two molars and every bout of fussiness sends us running for the pain killers and a teething cookie.
We also have entered the stage of night terrors. Nothing too bad, she sits up in bed crying like a banshee and is impossible to console for about 15 minutes, then goes right back to sleep. However, Mom and Dad find it a bit more disruptive if they have already fallen asleep. For a few nights, we woke her up after about 90 minutes to change her to her overnight diaper in the hopes of “resetting” her sleep cycle. It seems to have worked so far. The past two nights she’s gone to sleep and stayed asleep all night. I think it may have been a combination of the clock change, which really messed with her, teething, and this growth spurt she’s in (all of a sudden she’s started babbling LOTS, I think it won’t be long before she’s really talking). I am a little worried though. I was a big sleep walker as a child and sometimes still go for a stroll in my sleep. I hope she didn’t get that from me, since sleep walking and talking is a component of this category of sleep event. I know it scared my mother when I did it, especially that night I walked out the front door and into the yard. To throw my two cents in for anyone else dealing with night terrors, which occur roughly an hour after falling asleep instead of later at night like nightmares, partially waking the baby up seems to really work. We turn on a dim light in her room, roll her over in her crib, unzip the sleep sack, take off her pj pants and change her diaper, then redress her and let her roll back over. She wakes up a tiny bit, but not all the way and goes back to sleep quickly. That little interruption seems to let her move on into the next phase of sleep without the screaming. And, because we control the timing, our sleep is much better!
