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Questions from school about Keira’s sleeping:
1) What does Keira’s bedtime routine look like?
We’ve tried several, each made bed time much more difficult. Now we eat dinner, do a tubby then wait until Keira starts to put herself in bed, right now that’s usually around 8, that’s when we grab her and brush her teeth, we let her go and she runs back to bed. Daddy sings her a song and usually by the end she out cold.
2)What does the routine look like from when Keira gets home to when she goes to bed?
When Keira gets home she kicks off her socks and sneakers, checks herself in the mirror, walks around the house once then heads to the table for a snack and if she isn’t distracted almost every minute after that snack she will want to eat constantly. I don’t leave the kitchen much after Keira gets home from school, because someone must defended the food. And that pretty much continues after dinner until she goes to bed, regardless of how much she has eaten. Much of the time she doesn’t want to eat what she has. Keira will ask for a cookie and go to the table. I’ll give her a cookie and she’ll leave it there and go play, minutes later she’ll come back and want a cookie, I’ll show her that there is a cookie on the table and she’ll sit there, look at it, leave and go play only to come back and want tomatoes, which she may or may not eat.
3) What does Keira do at night when she does wake up?
Usually she wakes up screeching uncontrollably. She will go to the table, but won’t eat, then go to the couch and continue to screech inconsolably sometimes for up to 2 hours, then she stops and she’s happy jolly Keira.
However since I have started giving her the 2 Pepto’s before bed she now wakes up screeching, but only until I get up – which is usually pretty darn quick. Then she’s just cranky until I do her bidding, usually getting her something to eat, which she doesn’t want, then she will happily play in her room until she puts herself back to bed. However, NOT getting Keira something to eat will cause crankiness to go on for HOURS. It took us a life time to figure out that putting something in front of her would calm her down regardless if she eats it.
4)Have you kept a journal(diary) of her sleep patterns? Yes, we have. Usually after I start charting, Keira will start sleeping through the night. And as soon as I have it all figured out she starts waking up again but it is always different than before. There has been such a range of non-sleeping symptoms I could write a book. For the record, obviously I have never truly figured it out.
a) what time does Keira wake up? This round started a month ago, she started waking at 2 and now we’re up to waking at 11pm
b) what time did she go to bed? This round she’s been going to bed at 8 and you can’t keep her up any later – she will fall asleep standing up.
c) what time did she settle into bed? We wait for her, because trying to put her to bed when we want her to go was something we tried for 2 ½ years and we admit defeat. Plus, we don’t want her to go to bed any earlier than 8.
d) what helps her settle into bed? The ONLY thing that helps Keira settle down is waiting for Keira to settle down and intervention on our part will cause all hell to break loose. TV boredom, will help if she is tired and fighting it, but basically we have to wait for her to make the first move.
e) time/length that Keira is waking at night… Last night it was 11pm until some time after 4am – 4 being the last time I heard her in her room, because I fell asleep.
f) what happens when Keira wakes up at night? The last week has been better, she’s gotten happier much faster. She’s full of energy, jumps on her trampoline, climbs up and down different ways on the bunk bed time and time again, climbs up on top of and over her easel, sings songs, spells words, eats several books and now she has tea parties with her dolls.
5)Have you guys seen changes since the change in Keira’s diet? She’s waking up earlier than she did before, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the diet, that’s par for the course, it‘s only been 11 days and the change in waking time is normal. Sometimes it starts out where she wakes up at 2 am and it moves up to around midnight and some times its the other way around. And then it just STOPS for weeks at a time, we think we’re in the clear and we’ve finally figure out whatever it was and boom it starts all over again. The only constants I have found are these 1) When we open the windows in the spring she stops waking in the middle of the night for a month or so, but that could just be coincidence, she’s only 4. 2) the MORE exercise and activity Keira gets the LESS likely she is to sleep through the night and the earlier she‘ll wake up in the night. Meaning if we have a great family trip to the beach, we are all dead tired, but Keira will not only be up at midnight most likely she won’t go to bed until 10. 3) TV boredom will cause Keira to put herself to bed if she‘s tired. If whatever we have on is something she doesn’t like, she’ll go to bed to avoid it and since Keira doesn’t like TV, it works well if she’s in one of her stay up late, get up early cycles (Bed at 10pm up at 3am cycles – that’s my favorite cycle – 5 continuous hours!).
You wouldn’t happen to have a list of questions for Mouthing would you? As much as I’d love Keira to sleep through the night we are desperate to stop the mouthing. I would even consider medication if it came with a promise that she would stop eating books, wood, rocks, plastic, and anything else she can find. I can sleep when I’m dead, the mouthing is causing much much much more stress then the sleeping issue.

Keira is having a tea party with her dolls on the bunk bed. She told her dad she was having “Cake” then pretended to eat it – Gluten Free Day 10

Keira is now talking to her dollies – she still won’t talk a whole lot to us – she probably finds the dolls more intelligent. lol

Keira playing dolls

Children’s Pepto is Gluten and Dairy Free!!

This afternoon, Keira pulled the tomatoes out of the fridge and brought them to the table. I didn’t hear the first part of what she said, but the second half was “….. food that I like.” Pretty sure she was talking about the tomatoes (since she does like them) But WOW it sounded like a full sentence that wasn’t taken from something else, I think it was a sentence she formed on her own!

Keira has been on a Gluten/Dairy Free diet for 1 week.
(and no one’s died!)

Treasure and the cow

Today, each time Keira needed her bum wiped she’d come to wherever I was and say all the words she knows about the potty. lol Cooking, cleaning, making beds, didn’t matter she’d walk up and say “Poop, pee, potty, toilet, diaper, sit on a potty, wash a hands, wipe a butt, big girl.” Thankfully she was standing there without shorts and undies so I took the hint – lets hope that keeps up.

Passed Keira a brownie, she looked me in the eyes and said “I like this brown”
A few minutes later Daddy came home, walked in and said “Keira”‘ Keira turned around and said “Hi’ almost as if she didn’t mean to (as if, Darn, now they’ll know I know how to do it!) Then put her arms up to hug her dad and said “I love you”
All in about 5 minutes! Maybe this Gluten free stuff is working – course we’re only on day 6!

Keira is very much NOT digging this new diet – poor thing.
I hope the Brownies taste good.

1 800 222 1222 WithOut looking up the number – where am I calling?
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Tonight Keira got a plastic top from one of her toys and 4 random little people in to top and sang the Little Einstein song. Then the little people and Rocket took off lol