Change in the air

This was a very challenging week for us. As you already know, our kids have been off their regular sleeping routines. I continued to get less than 6 hours of sleep a night between the two of them waking up and needing to be soothed back to sleep.

Madeleine seems to be at a huge transition. From what we know/what I've read, the transition from 2 to 3 can be very overwhelming for toddlers, sometimes causing them to regress in behavior to feel "safe" as they enter this new stage of independence. For Madeleine, I believe that explains why she began sucking on her fingers regularly (reminiscent of the comfort babies receive from nursing) and wanting to be held/rocked to sleep. She continues to not nap, although she still yawns and rubs her eyes all afternoon, but that's been tolerable. She at least now has initiated her old bedtime routine and falls asleep without any resistance while getting back tickles...a HUGE improvement! And she even slept through the night last night which improved her disposition for the entirety of today. One problem I have is remember she's only 2.5! Because she wears 4T tops (I know!), 3T pants, and is 35 pounds, it's easy to not want to pick her up because she's huge and expect more of her because she's as tall as many 4 year olds. That's definitely my issue, not hers.

Parker continues to fight falling asleep at night. Fortunately it only takes about 10 minutes of crying for him to crash but it doesn't last for long. I still think he's jazzed up about walking and has a hard time slowing down in spite of our bedtime routine. And he's so much fun to watch that it's hard to force him to stop even when we know there's an exhausted baby under all of that walking and babbling. Again...my issue.

Justin's out hunting today through Wednesday (fortunately his cold dissipated this week) so I'm flying solo but it will be worth it come Friday when we go out to celebrate my birthday! If you have any karaoke suggestions, send them my way :)