Last night was a bad one for Bella, I’m still not sure why. She went to bed a little later than usual because we had dinner with some friends. She didn’t seem to mind the lateness of the hour and she’d had fun playing with all their baby toys. Not so much playing with their baby, though. Children under two really don’t play together well. At most they acknowledge one another’s existence and grab toys from each other’s hands. Bella did pat Joseph on the head a few times, I think she really likes hair.
Anyway, she went to bed pretty easily. But then woke us up around 12:30 screaming at the top of her lungs. Once it became apparent she wasn’t going to roll over and fall back asleep, I went in to check on her. Her diaper wasn’t dirty, hardly wet at all. I gave her some baby Tylenol and then nursed her a bit and rocked her. When she wasn’t actively nursing she was screaming. Finally I put her back down, figuring if she was going to scream as much in my arms as in her crib, I wasn’t doing much good at comforting her and maybe she just needed to cry herself back to sleep. Didn’t work. Half an hour later I went back in, changed her diaper and put her back down. This time she seemed to go back to sleep.
Then at around 5:30 or 6 she began screaming again. It was a terrible morning, she was cranky and tired until she finally fell asleep on Dom’s lap while I was vacuuming the kitchen. She slept for two hours and woke up a new baby, chattering to herself and giving me an earful when I went to collect her.
She was pretty good all afternoon. We had a nice trip to the post office and a walk to the park. She had an early dinner and started nodding off while I was giving her some yogurt. I felt bad having to plop her in the tub when she was so obviously tired, but she was filthy. Still, even with the bath, she was sleeping soundly in her crib by 6:30. I hope tonight will be an easier night.
We never did figure out what the problem was. Overtired? Teething? Aftereffects from Wednesday’s immunizations? Who knows.
Praying for Tim
for employment and favorable resolution of a serious property dispute.