Sick Days

My daughter has always been an amazing sleeper. She was sleeping through the night at something obscene like 6 weeks. She takes one nap a day and it usually lasts three hours. The main problem is that she hates actually GOING to bed and will cry and cry for a good 10 minutes, breaking my heart the whole time. (They all told me I would GET USED TO THIS. They lied) Her tears usually start whenever I say something about bed or sleeping or night which can cause problems when it's the middle of the day and I read her a book that involved people going to bed. She will look at me with fearful yes saying "No! No? NO! NOOOOOO!" No matter how many times I tell her that "no, now is not time for bed. Now is time for Mr. Hippo to be in bed. Little Kinsies get to run around like wild babies for much longer!" she still stares at my suspiciously for awhile before going back to playing.

So last night threw me off. She started her usual not wanting to go to bed as I was getting her in her pajamas and she was getting all the usual kisses from daddy and I. As I carried her to her bedroom she was squirming and sobbing "walk? walk? walk? walk?" So I put her down as we entered her bedroom and turned off the light. She ran to her bed, lifted her arms and said, "up?" As soon as I picked her up she snuggled into my neck and went limp - as though she was already asleep from such a long hard day of being waited on hand and foot. There were no complaints as I lay her in her crib and snuggled her in with her doggie and her "banKET!" Then I went out to my husband and asked who that was and what had he done with my daughter.



It was not to last, though. Two hours later she started coughing violently and screaming at the top of her lungs so I ran into the room only to discover that my perfectly healthy daughter had developed some form of fast-attacking crud that had left her nostrils so plugged with goop that she couldn't breathe. I can imagine that for one so ickle it's hard to suddenly wake up and not be able to breathe! I went into full on overreacting mode - considering that this is just a cold. I turned on the shower as hot as it would go and we snuggled into the bathroom until the steam had made everything stick to us. I rubbed her down with Vicks Babyrub, brought her back to her room, and snuggled her into her bed while I filled her humidifier and got that all turned on. As I put that in I realized that the Kins had never slept with a pillow so she had no way of propping her head up. I have always resisted the thought of giving her one because she's the type who is regularly found flopping her way out of her crib,



but somehow she stayed propped up and all night and was still on the pillows every time I went in to check on her. The same goes for the nap she's taking right now. On the pillow. Who would have guessed that she'd adapt so easily to this?