What does it mean?

Any Spanish used in blog posts is hyperlinked to its English translation.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

sleep training and self-medication fail

We're trying to convince the guajolotita to sleep in her own bed. It's about 3 months now that she has slept primarily with us. In our bed. Besides affecting everyone's sleep - there are certain adult activities that she hinders. Like putting away the laundry. Seriously. All my stuff is in laundry baskets. I suppose getting a dresser would help too. But anyway - it all started when we went to visit my grandparents. We stayed over ONE night and all shared a king-size bed. Before that, she would start out in her crib and sometime between 2-5am I would bring her into our bed. But on this trip, it was the whole night together. (It was also her first bath in a real bathtub. I got in with her. It was super fun!) And ever since then. Sometimes she'll stay in her crib for a little while - between 20 min - 2hrs. Sometimes that means going and putting her back down several times in that short timeframe! Anyway, at 8 months old, and almost half her life in bed with us - it's getting ridiculous. She's either in the stroller or being held for naps. Otherwise, she naps for 30 minutes at most. (That's EXACTLY 30 minutes. You could set a timer by her.) Also, a babysitting episode with grandpa that may have involved an attempt by him to "cry it out" is prompting me to find a humane solution. And finally - she tolerates the crib less and less. And it's interfering with our sex life. Can't have that. So, with the long weekend here, we thought - let's try it. But here's the thing: I have a persistent cough. It's worse at night when the heat comes on. If I cough from the other room - she hears it and wakes up. Now she's getting it, so she's coughing too (only a very little bit, so far). Between the coughing and the expected amount of don't-wanna-be-in-the-crib waking, I slept less last night than any time since I was home on maternity leave. And then the stupid alarms went off because it was Thursday. Even though it's Thanksgiving. I have a mind to put it off. Again. But it's winter. She was sick for 5 weeks with one cold after another already. And then there was the constipation crisis (and it WAS a crisis. Awful.) and now this. Then we go on vacation to visit family and meet Abuelito. During which 3 weeks we will... all share a bed again. Argh. Fun, but then back to the real world and work in the morning. And learning to sleep in the crib again. Oh, the self-medication fail: I figured that due to breastfeeding I couldn't take anything for this cough, so I just grabbed some cough drops we already had and used those to try and get through the night. Then the next day I look it up on KellyMom and... menthol may cause a reduction in supply! And I ate 2 bags of coughdrops in 36 hrs! Argh!! So I send The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe to the store with a list of acceptable ingredients, take my dose after feeding her, and then notice... wait! This has menthol too! Argh!! We had a very nice Thanksgiving, so I will post this dated the day before to not sound like a holiday grouch.