Sleeping Beauty

Today at naptime and bedtime, I/we tucked Karla in and then she ASKED us to close her door and went right to sleep!!!!!!!! Whoa!! Exciting stuff!

Karla and I were outside pretty much all day today. It was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky! yeah for summer-like weather! Only bad thing...I didn't do anything in the house today, including make dinner (thanks, Jason). Guess I'll have to learn how to stay inside for a little while when it is so nice out!

In case you wondered, Oso is still wearing his voting sticker...Karla wore hers to bed last night on her pajamas but didn't feel she needed to wear it today.

Time to Vote

Jason took Karla to vote with him tonight so I could relax for a little bit. By the smiles on their faces and the stickers on both of them AND Oso, I knew they had a fun time!

Sleep

So, I'm going to tell you about Karla's sleep "progress". It has GREATLY improved. As you know from following my blog that Karla hadn't slept through the night in 5+ months since she'd been home (except maybe a rare fluke). And it was taking a toll on everyone in the house! At all the "classes" we had to go to prior to adopting they told us that EVERY time your new child cries - even at night - you need to respond to help form the attachment bond. So, we did. We did it throughout the day and night. Then it seemed like nights were getting worse and worse and then naps got miserable as well - I felt like I was going to go crazy. I would fall asleep in Karla's bed, in the rocking chair, on the floor...anywhere that I was able to sit/lay still on during Karla's crying in the night. We were all short on patience and dreaded night time. I was starting to feel desperate for sleep. Then Jason and I were getting pretty sure that Karla was understanding everything we were saying to her and that she was doing a great job of manipulating us at night! (There was a lot of thought and talk behind that belief) I do think that a lot of her night waking had to do with behavior but I also think her breathing/asthma and adjusting to a new home/country/family contributed too! It is kind of amazing how the timing of everything worked out...or could it be all the prayers?? :) Remember my prayer request? I just looked back at my blog and it was the beginning of April when things were bad.

I was willing to try anything. So, we tried the Supernanny "Sleep separation technique" (http://www.supernanny.com/Advice/-/Your-toddler/-/Toddler-care/The-sleep-separation-technique.aspx). I haven't watched the TV show since before Guatemala. i remember occasionally watching it and thinking some of the parents on the show were nuts...but then...well, now maybe I'm one of them. I know what sleep deprivation can do to you now... I now LOVE Supernanny's website. It had a little video that we watched with Karla and then we started the technique. Basically you put your child in bed (after their familiar bedtime routine, of course), kiss them goodnight, then sit on the floor so they can only see your profile. You don't talk to them at all. So the first few nights are rough (mainly just the first one for us) because your child is crying and you are basically sitting there ignoring them. Then you move farther and farther from their bed each night. We are currently able to sit outside of her bedroom, down the hall, right outside of our bedroom door...so we are pretty far away now!! We did the progression slowly because she was sick for a while. Nap time is a breeze! Bedtime is SO much better!! At first Karla fussed during the bedtime routine because she knew what was coming but now she will mostly just talk to Oso for a few minutes and then go to sleep. She even sleeps through the night now!!!

Last night was the 4th night in a row and prior to her getting sick we had 5 nights in a row, beating her best record of 4 nights in a row (which was really unusual) and I can't even remember when it was...maybe January. She sleeps longer at night too! Her naps may be slightly shorter but that is okay!!

I'm able to keep the house cleaner and keep up with laundry. I didn't sleep very often when she slept for naps before and I wish I had because I guess I wasn't actually being that productive. Now that I am running on a good night's sleep I am amazed at how much more I can do in a day and how much more energy I have for playing.


Another good thing is that Jason was home for 4-5 days around Easter. Karla really warmed up to him a lot more during that time. (I had been concerned about this at the beginning of April as well). She is better about letting him help in the middle of night - if necessary - and about letting him do some more of the "caregiving" things without crying or fussing. She also gives him tons more hugs and kisses and I know Jason loves that!

Karla is really into pretending to be "Jennifer". She thinks it is funny to be me. Not sure what that means... :)

Karla hasn't done her business on the potty again. The closest we got was an accident on the floor next to the potty this morning.I guess this will be harder than I thought. Good thing I'm not in a hurry. :)

Yesterday we had to play "sleep" a lot. I was "Karla" and had to sleep in the bed and Karla was "Mommy" sitting in the hallway. I took the picture from her bed. I usually sit where the laundry hamper is in the picture. She was even "reading" my book that I have been keeping in the hallway.

Happy Mother's Day

This is the happiest Mother's Day I've had in...well, probably 5 years! :)

Karla just pee-peed on the potty for the first time minutes ago. I am shaking a little bit because I wanted to be all happy and excited for her (and I was) but inside I am sad at the same time. All these milestones are good and I am thankful for them...never really expected them to be a little sad too!!! Jason is up giving her a bath so I have time to recover..and blog.

Pee-pee is not the reason I had a good mother's day though. :) I am SOO thankful to have Karla!

We went to church, out to lunch, took a nap (yeah!)and then played outside. The day went fast!

I had told Jason earlier this evening that I might start focusing on potty training tomorrow because we don't have much planned this week. I have felt for a few weeks that if I just put some effort into it - Karla could do it. I have been procrastinating for a variety of reasons. Guess I better do it for sure now!

I know there are a few mothers that read my blog that do not yet have their baby in their arms either due to adoption or fertility issues. I don't think I'll ever forget what it is like to go through a Mother's Day when my baby wasn't with me. I want you to know that I think about you and pray for you all the time! People used to tell me that all the waiting would be worth. I can finally agree! "Stand firm in the faith...be strong" 1 Corinthians 16:13, "...run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus..." Hebrews 12:1-2.

On a different note - Karla looked so cute in her outfit this morning. I had seen it before it was warm outside and actually was able to make myself wait to buy it when it went on sale! They still had her size too. :) Hopefully she'll cooperate for a better shot next time she wears it.


A special "Happy Mother's Day" to my Mom, Mom-in-law, grandmas, and aunts!!!

Exceptional

Today I took Karla to the doctor so the doctor could make sure Karla wasn't wheezing anymore. (The doctor had asked me last week to bring her in this week for a check-up) Karla looked good and sounded good! Yeah! We'll continue the preventative medicine, Singulair, the nasal spray, and the Pulmicort (breathing treatment) each once a day and then see the allergist again at the beginning of June to assess how she is doing.

I think the doctor knew I was a speech therapist and she asked me asked me if I'd worked with children Karla's age. I was kind of wondering where the question was going. I told her yes and then she said "then you know she is exceptional, I don't have to tell you". It took a minute to register what she had said (I am sleep-deprived afterall). That made my day!! I felt my cheeks get really hot for some reason and I said, "well, I just thought that I thought she was exceptional because she was my daughter." The doctor said "no, Karla is a very good listener and a model patient." She also said she knew I might not agree with that during a tantrum but she was very well behaved whenever the doctor sees her. I had to agree that Karla is a good listener the majority of the time. If only she'd sleep.... I guess she can't be perfect. :)

The sleep was better last week then (since I mentioned it in my blog) the past few nights have not been good at all. I'll write about our "strategies" sometime when I am not concerned (too much) with how much sleep I will be getting in the upcoming night. Still have to go clean the kitchen...

Tonight when Jason got home we gave Karla a gift from Grandma and Grandpa. She LOVES it! She calls it her car and it got to park in the garage with Mommy and Daddy's cars for the night! There was crying involved when it was time to come in for the night. I'm glad she liked it though! Jason and I were excited to give it to her. We've had it since Sunday and were waiting until we were both home with Karla to give it to her. It has been a busy week!

The little stinker refuses to look at me whenever I have the camera!!

Yes, I know I am not supposed to go in the street....I'm just making sure the rule still applies when I am driving my car.

6 months

We had a playdate last week with my two good friends from high school and their kids. I love this picture! You know we couldn't get a picture of the three of them looking at the camera at the same time!


Karla has been home for 6 months today! Half of a year and 1/5 of her life. :)

Karla is better!! Yeah! I hope she doesn't get sick again for a while. It is hard on all of us! She is down to one breathing treatment a day - and asks for it more than once a day because she likes to sit, read a book and wear her mask. We are going for her check-up, so the doctor can listen to her breathing, on Thursday afternoon.

I've been jotting down things to blog about for over a week now. I'm just going to list some of them now.

*Running errands together is SO much easier now. She will sit in a cart without much fussing. She just knows she has to do it now. It also doesn't seem so physically challenging (I'm not sore all the time) to me anymore, thank goodness!

*Last Wednesday I decided to do some speech therapy with Karla. She needed to practice saying her name more accurately. She was saying "kaka" a lot for her name or "kaga". It just wasn't sounding good... Anyway, we sat in front of a mirror and I showed her how to make an "L" in her name. She can make the sound just wasn't doing it in her name. She got it after a few tries. She was saying "ka-la". We worked on it for a few more minutes because she thought it was funny to say it the new way. Throughout the day I asked her her name a few times and she would slowly tell me, "Kaaa-la". That night, as Jason and I were listening to her fall asleep, talking to Oso, we heard this:
Karla: Oso, "Ka-ka"? No. Kaaa-la". Oso - Ka-la.
Oso: Ka-la.


We heard this several times! Karla was doing speech therapy with Oso! It was hilarious!!! It was hard for Jason and I to be quiet because we were laughing so hard.

*Karla has started stuttering a lot. It is definitely worse when she is tired. I am minorly concerned about it. The speech therapist in me tells me not to worry but...easier said than done.

*I think we are going to start doing more speech therapy for two reasons 1) she liked it so much and learned so quickly and 2) her articulation could be better. Okay there is a third reason - because I haven't done speech therapy in a while!!! :)

*Karla identifies the letters K, L, Y and sometimes M.

*When I try to take Karla's picture she will run away, put her head down, or tell me "no". I guess she is tired of being photographed. Just last week, when I try to take her picture, she runs behind me and starts flailing her arms and sticking her tongue out. I come to find out that Jason does this behind me when I take a picture of her....so now she is doing it when he isn't around! Hhhhh.....

*I had bought a new powder compact and decided to give my old empty one to Karla. She had held my new one in the package in the store and was very excited about it. You would have thought I had given her gold!! She played with that thing for an entire day. It was make-up, it was a phone - it never left her side for the day.

*We took the gate down that has been at the top of our steps since Karla arrived home. We made a big deal of it and Karla was very happy. She enjoys being able to go up and down without anything stopping her. It is also helpful if I want her to go upstairs, grab her socks and come back down! We don't both have to go. I do still get a little nervous about her having free run of the stairs but...oh well.

*Karla wants to put her shoes on by herself now. She is able to do it too, usually. She got some new shoes last week because her feet have grown and her other shoes were getting pretty tight. So, she changes shoes many times in one day. I guess she doesn't want to leave a pair out. I have never really given Karla the opportunity to dress herself - I usually just do it. But lately she has wanted to do it by herself. Come to think of it, she wants to do just about everything by herself right now....

*Karla is helping me remember things. One day, we got in the car and as I was backing out of the driveway Karla started yelling "seat belt safe" to me. I turned around and I had forgotten to buckle her in!! She was reminding me. I was very thankful! She says "seat belt safe" because on Dora, Dora and Boots always say, "we put on our seatbelts - so we can be safe!" Karla also reminded me in the car this morning that we forgot to brush her teeth before we left the house for playgroup. Oops. I'm glad someone is on top of things though!

*Saturday we went to the big annual garage sale in the area. I go with my mom and mom-in-law. Two years ago we got lots of toys for Karla. Last year I didn't go because I was visiting Karla for the second time! Anyway, we got lots of stuff for her again this year. We even found a edger/trimmer and a snow blower for Daddy! He was very excited. Here is our pile of goodies.

Karla's favorite things were the Dora chair, the tool bench, Daddy's trimmer (yes, she pushed it up and down the sidewalk many times), and the Elmo potty seat.


It was nice because I had a list of a few toys I would like to get for Karla if I saw them and I got just about everything on my list! I was excited about the basketball hoop...but Karla hasn't really showed any interest in it yet.

The one thing I didn't find was some little outdoor slide or climbing thing. When we came home and were playing in the driveway, a neighbor came over and said "My kids don't use our Little Tikes play thing anymore. Do you want it?" Ha! I was excited and told her about our garage sale day. So now Karla has this:

She LOVES sliding and crawling in and out of the "circles" in all kinds of ways. We're still on the hunt for a reasonably priced, not too big, swingset.

I have more to blog about...good sleeping news. But I am going to make you wait a little longer to hear about it! :) GOOD night!

Quick Update

Karla and I went to church yesterday and we both had fun getting out of the house. She hasn't been coughing much and seems better. Her doctor wants to see her middle to end of next week to listen to her. I'm thinking she wants to check on her since she knew I didn't want Karla to have another chest x-ray. :)