Catching up with Wren.

Life is busy as usual, and with me working part time, two of those shifts in the evening, a lot of my time to blog has disappeared. Wren also likes to dominate the computer with Sesame Street watching. Let me just say that loading her videos and trying to load blog photos makes both her and I unhappy, as neither really gets what they want.

Speaking of not getting what you want...

Wren has been feeding herself for a while now, but recently she has decided she needs to have her turn with the spoon. I know, so many of my latest photos are her in the highchair with food in her hair. A walking child is not still...not even for a photo. Here at least I can catch her. But today was funny, as yogurt was flung...across her face!

Some spoon banging happening.

Independence can be a messy thing. She was having one of those hair days where it looks like we plunked a toupee on the top of her head.

We have been so housebound, probably just like everyone else. So much snow, but also too cold to go out for a walk with the sled. Wren really likes sled walks, I think. She just sort of sits there and doesn't smile the entire time.

I have been keeping busy in my downtime by trying to knit some legwarmers. At this rate, they may be ready by March. The other day I was showering while Wren watched Sesame Street in the other room, and she came into the bathroom and showed me my knitting....thankfully nothing unwound itself as any knitter knows how hard it can be to fix big knitting mistakes without ripping out your whole project and starting over!

I finally tried to take some more nice photos of Wren. She doesn't hold still, ever. So a million pictures later, I came out with a few cute ones.

This face...oh this face... :)

If I have talked to you lately, you most likely know that Wren's nights have not been progressing as we had once hoped they would for her age...
She is now completely over any sickness, but her sleep has taken an even bigger turn for the worst. She is waking up twice a night, usually midnight and 4:30am. In the past, we would just give her the bottle, and within maybe 15 min she would be back asleep. But now a pattern has started and she always wakes up and is now taking over an hour to get back to sleep if we are lucky. An HOUR.

After a week of sleep from  h- e-double hockey sticks, Wren decided to end an exhausting week with the worst night of all. Last night she was up from 2am until 4:30am...I think...or was it 5? I don't even know. After an hour of me trying to pat her bum to sleep without success, we tried another bottle (I know, you probably are picking out everything we are doing wrong right about now, I know I am in hindsight).

After that didn't work, we let her cry. 10 min in, she barfs. We clean it up. Let cry again. Another 10, more barf. Clean up. Let cry. Let cry. Let cry. I can't even tell you how long it took.
I think Kenton went back in and tried again to let her fall asleep with the bottle, but I don't think she wanted it. So he left, she cried two more sobs, and that was all. She woke up at 6:30am, I rocked her back to sleep and we heard Wren at 7:30 again but she wasn't quite awake and Kenton got ready for work and I heard Wren again at 8am. I was so tired that I heard her crying in my dream so I didn't go to her right away until I groggily realized it was time to get up now.

That was bad. Really bad. Like, she must be popping the rest of her teeth all at once for this to make any sense.

We have always rocked her to sleep with a bottle. We tried to let her cry before, and it sort of worked, but then she figured out barfing got us back in the room with the lights on. Even at nap time she gags herself until she barfs if I leave the room! It's awful!

So now we are in the let-cry days. We tried the "no cry sleep solution"...but let me tell you, that has not proven to be any better either. If anything, it has made everything ten times worse. And I can't lie, I know I definitely feel like we failed somewhere, and it's very frustrating. It's like I want someone to just come and tell me exactly what to do to fix it.

We are going to keep at the crying though, because it is our last option, so we will see how that goes.

If you have helpful suggestions or went through the same thing, feel free to send me a message or email, I would love to hear them. Especially if you experienced the barfing problem with your baby!
I know our doctor said it's a behaviour she does to get her way. So we are doing our best to ignore any gagging and barfing. (Um yes, we clean up the barf, but then move on quickly without making a big deal of it.)

We do a lot of laundry these days, that is for sure.

On another note...sorry it's not more positive either! Kenton's Grandma Jeske is in the hospital at the moment. She will probably not be with us much longer, maybe not past this week. This turn of events has happened quickly, more quickly than our family has expected.
We went to go visit her, and she seemed to notice Wrennie and smile when she saw her. Grandma Jeske has had Alzheimer's for several years, and it's the only way I have known her, and it has progressed quickly over those years. This may be a hard week for us coming up, as we are not sure what is going to happen.
It is sad, however, Kenton's Grandpa Jeske passed away over 10 years ago now from cancer, and it is comforting to know she will finally be going home to him.

I am glad she was able to see a great-grandchild in her lifetime too. Even in the short time I have known her, there are memories I have to smile at when I think of them.

One of my favourites was when I was about 8 or 9 months pregnant with Wrennie and I was shopping with Grandma J and Judy at the mall, and we sat down for some ice cream. Grandma's Alzheimer's was quite far along and she often couldn't find the words she meant to say. So I had a few bags to carry, and as we were getting up to go, Grandma looked around me and said,
"Oh! Let me help you carry...um...carry...the...the...the baby!" Then she laughed as she probably realized what she had said didn't make sense, but it was quite funny!

I think one word that would describe Grandma J is Lovely. Everything about her that I know has always been warming and loving, and just lovely. I will say more on her another time. This post is growing longer and longer as I go.

Oh here is this silly face again. She's doing "the hulk". Her specialty.

I could also use some warmer weather just like everyone else. We have a baby sled to get out and use already!

I can't wait for summer.