Another Question...

For those of you who have kids or work with them, here's another question: how do you get your toddler to sleep? What's a good routine? How long does it take to get them used to it? Once Katelynn's down for the night, we're usually golden, but sometimes the struggle is just getting her to go to sleep.

I worked with her for an hour last night. I read to her, offered her sippy cup of milk, and cuddled with her. Then when she was rubbing her eyes a lot, I'd put her in her crib. She would act like she was going to go to sleep and would be quiet for five or ten minutes and then she would begin to scream bloody murder. I went through the whole process about 3 times last night before she finally took in more milk and calmed down to go to sleep. By that point, it was really beginning to get dark. I partially blame myself for not having her on a routine before this and also blame daylight savings time. DST really screws up little children's circadian rhythms.

So the questions of the day are: How do (or did) you get your toddler to sleep at a decent hour? What did you do when they would scream? Do you let them cry until they fall asleep or do you comfort them? I know she's capable of falling asleep on her own. She does that about half the time. I'd like to see it all the time. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, who knows?

Still never a dull moment!

I know. I need a new title.

Since I'm still not working (grrr!!!), I usually have Katelynn home on Fridays. Last Friday I noticed she had a bad runny nose. It looked like she was coming down with a cold. Saturday she rubbed her eyes all day. Sunday she had yellow gunk coming out of her eyes. Matt and I were wondering what in the world was wrong. So we loaded the WebMD page and the symptoms seemed to indicate pink eye.

So I called the doctor first thing Monday morning and told them I thought she had pink eye. They wanted me there in 20 minutes. Katelynn was ready, but I was not. We came in about 40 minutes later, and interestingly enough, I did not have to wait too long to see the Nurse Practitioner. Everyone else in the waiting room just "had" to see the doctor working that day. I didn't care. The NPs at our doctor office are top notch.

After much screaming on Katelynn's part, our NP said she had a cold, an ear infection and pink eye. Most likely the cold rapidly morphed into the ear infection and the pink eye. We left the doctor's office to go to the grocery store pharmacy with 2 prescriptions in hand. It was amazing though. Katelynn was as pale as could be, at least to me, she looked sick. She still managed to smile and giggle at all the people around her and several of the grocery store staff broke out into grins and laughter as they waved to her. She was just eating up the attention! Even on a not so good day, she's adorable!

She's been on her medication for 4 days now and she is now back at daycare. After 24 hours of being on the eyedrops she is considered no longer contagious for pink eye and she's allowed to return to daycare. That could have been yesterday but daycare was closed for obvious reasons.

By Tuesday she was pretty much back to her old self...pulling out the dining room chairs so she could climb and stand on them, tugging at electrical cords, basically running amuck. So Matt and I are getting a crash course in toddler discipline. I don't mean discipline in the form of corporal punishment, but gently and firmly guiding her to do things the way you're supposed to. When she climbs on the chairs I stand next to her and if she stands up, I sit her back down and tell her that chairs are for sitting in not standing and rocking. I figure enough repetition and her behavior will change. I'm also signing "No" and "No touch" to her when she pulls on electrical cords or makes a beeline for Matt's telescope. She has cried when I signed that to her, but I took her away from the situation, gave her a hug and some reassurance that Mommy still loved her but didn't want her to get hurt. Then I distracted her with some toys.

I don't know if I'm doing this the right way. I really feel like I'm winging it. It has, however, given me new appreciation for my own parents and what they went through with 4 kids. Any thoughts, ideas or stories on toddler discipline, I'd love to hear them, so don't be shy!

Here are two pictures from yesterday. Katelynn loves her new wagon. She wanted to stand on it so Matt had to take it away from her because she kept bumping her head. We just want her to be safe!

Katelynns wagon