Walking

Brooke has officially started to take steps on her own.  She still can't stand up or turn without holding on. So, she waits for someone to pick her up onto her feet and then starts to walk like a drunken Frankenstein's monster.  One arm up in a V, other arm straight out to the side, legs far apart, and a huge smile on her face. She takes a few steps and then falls down laughing.  She is so proud of her new trick.  At the playground she is Evel Knievel.  She has no regard for where I am and hitch crawls all over the place.  She enjoys crawling up stairs and hurling herself face first down the slides.  She has just started to hold the railings to practice walking up and down the stairs.  She has obviously not read the childhood development books where walking up and especially down stairs comes after learning to walk alone on flat earth.  I also got a flashback of stories my mother told me about my youth when Brooke crawled up a few stairs and then stood up, turned around, and started to just walk right off the top step.  I was across the room and had to sprint to catch her before she went down hard onto her head.  I guess the curse worked mom, thanks.

Charlotte is doing very well now that her parents are behaving better.  We had gotten into a bad habit of pushing off bedtime and sitting with her to watch about 20 to 30 minutes of t.v. each night before bed.  She was having a harder and harder time behaviorally during the day and when we could not figure out what was wrong with her, we started looking at what was wrong with us.  Turns out we are lazy and it was affecting her.  So now, her parents are doing a better job of keeping on a *gasp* schedule at night and getting Charli her dinner, bath (sometimes), pajamas, teeth brushed, and to sleep by 7:30 on a good night and by 8:00 on a not so good night.  Life is better, more structured and a little rushed, but better.  She is such a good girl, she makes us proud every day.  She shows so much self-awareness and restraint at times it is amazing.  Without our input, she has said "no thank-you" to helping our upstairs neighbor walk her dogs when we were eating dinner and when we were on a video call with her grandparents, she also turned down a candy cane when she had already had a small one that day.  Every once in a while she makes us feel that we are doing an alright job by her.  I am sure her therapist will someday relieve us of that delusion, but for now...

Sleeping like a baby

I have been thinking (and fantasizing) a lot about sleep over the last few months.  Brooke has been teething and evidently teething and sleeping are not compatible.  She is up at least three times a night and can't get herself back to sleep when she is in pain.  Even when she is asleep, she doesn't want to be alone and is quite unhappy when she is put back into her crib.  Therefore, Brooke is sleeping in our bed at least a quarter of every night.  Then there is Charlotte.  She has never slept well.  She snores, tosses and turns, and has nightmares, and also prefers to sleep with others.  So, she ends up in our bed at least once a week.  Sometimes we play a huge game of musical beds in the middle of the night.  Charli has a nightmare and comes into our room.  She climbs between us and goes back to sleep.  Then, Brooke gets up and cries, I help her back to sleep but she won't go into her bed.  I don't have the energy or desire for a 3 am fight and so I bring her into Charli's bed with me.  Now Jeff is the only one in the right bed, but we are all sleeping so that is what is important, right?

With all of this co-sleeping (which, by the way, before we had Charli, we swore we would never do and couldn't believe people allowed this to occur), we noticed that Charli was having a hard time breathing at night.  She seemed to be working really hard to get air through her nose.  It would get worse and worse until she moved, opened her mouth, and gasped for air.  Then she would close her mouth and start all over again.  This lead to a discussion with her pediatrician, a visit to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, a few visits to my Chiropractor, and a sleep study.  Charli and I went to a hotel where one floor was dedicated to the UCSF Sleep Center.  Charli was hooked up to about 30 wires that were taped onto her body and cemented onto her head, a nasal cannula was placed in her nose and she was told to go to sleep.  She wasn't convinced.  She finally slept and I sort of slept on a cot next to her all night.  So far, it seems that the chiropractic has helped to open her sinuses and reduced her snoring.  The sleep study was negative (whew!).  We still need to have the follow up with the ENT, who may still suggest getting Charli's boulder-like tonsils out.  I am just happy to know she is getting enough oxygen at night and is not killing off all of her lovely brain cells in her sleep.

Speaking of sleeping, I am going to go do that right now.  At least until someone wakes me up again.  Goodnight.