The Fennell Family: 13 Months Old

Maddi is now 13 months old! Unfortunately, today turned out to be less than wonderful. Actually for the last two weeks, Maddi has been waking up in the middle of the night off and on. At first, I was worried she might not be feeling good because that is unusual for her, so I would go in and rock her until she fell back asleep. However, this habit has continued and now I think all I did was make her want me to rock her in the middle of the night. This week has been particularly bad. So I decided to break her of the habit and for the last few nights if she cried for more than 5 or so minutes I would finally go in but I wouldn't pick her up. I talked softly to her and patted her back. But this just made her mad!!! She starts screaming like she is being tortured and pounding her feet on the mattress. I mean to tell you she throws a royal fit! And that's exactly what it is...a fit. She wants me to hold her and that's all there is to it. And although my instinct is to pick her up when she is crying like that, I realize that in the long run, it is better if I continue to teach her good sleep habits. I never leave until she falls back asleep. I either stand on the side of the bed patting her back or sit down right by the crib. She eventually wears herself out and goes off to sleep. It actually takes less time than it did to rock her back to sleep. Last night she fussed 3 or 4 times but never to the point of me having to go into her room...which was an improvement.

We have also been battling teething again. I'm sure this could be part of the sleeping issues as well, but other than another dose of motrin, there isn't much I can do for that in the middle of the night. She currently has 7 teeth visible. But over the last week or so, we have noticed her gnawing quite a bit on her toys. Today I noticed teeth marks on her crib rail! And for the last several days she has been drooling A LOT! Another symptom she gets with her teething is the "loose" diapers. We had yet to see any but her school called today at around 9:30 to tell me she had already had 2. She had no fever and wasn't acting like she felt bad but they said if she had another one I would have to come get her. I told them this happens when she's teeting. However, at 10:00 they called and said she had another one so I had to leave to go get her. This has happened before and when we got her home she never had another problem verifying to us that it was just teething and not a bug. Well, same thing today. No more "loose" stools. And when I picked her up she was actually in a great mood. So kind of frustrating to have to miss work for nothing...then again I got to spend time with her. I wish it had more pleasant though. Because even though she didn't have any more diaper issues, MAN was she FUSSY! This teething business really stinks. She took only 2 short naps, was screaming during her entire bath, and fussed in bed for an hour before going to sleep tonight...even though she was exhausted before hand. We did have one good stretch where she was in an good mood and helped me decorate the christmas tree. That was fun! And, oh, did I mention. Moss went out of town today, so this fun time was all me. Needless to say I am worn out. I plan on heading to bed very soon in case we are up again tonight. My plan is to go take a hot shower and then hop into bed to watch White Christmas! I love that movie!

Anyways, I did manage to take some pics to mark her 13 month milestone! We went outside for awhile which helped to cheer her up. Always works! I'm hoping for a much happier Maddi tomorrow!