Sleep Or Lack There Of

Squeaker has just not been sleeping well for the better part of a month now. We are used to her waking up for a bottle every few hours during the night and then going back to sleep. And as annoying as the is when she "sleeps" from 10pm to 8-9am it's not so bad. Then a good nap in the afternoon from about 3-6pm rounds out life quiet well.

Lately wake ups have been more frequent and last longer do to the fact she has to have her diaper, pjs and often sheets changed. Sometimes she just wakes up and although dazed is awake enough to not let you sleep. Ohh don't forget the recent bought of stomach cramps do to inappropriate stomach emptying. Add in the fact that she now sleeps 11pm- 7am and a good nap is 3-5pm (most often only until 4 or 4:30) and well you have one tired family.

Trey and I are trying our hardest to be patient with Squeaker but with less sleep she is of course fussy, clingy, and communicating very poorly. Squeaker has a terrible habit, like most 2.5 year olds, of throwing and hitting when things aren't done their way or on their time table. Which in our house causes time outs... which she hates and causes screaming, and crying. But gets the point across so we deal.

In other news the test results came back. Ultrasounds look normal, Wahoo! Sadly the stomach emptying study was "abnormally normal". Which means it is not perfectly normal but not bad enough to really do anything yet. In the first hour Squeaker's stomach emptied 19% (they like a minimum of 25%) and in the second hour it emptied up to 80%. Normally what you empty in the first hour is what you do in the second hour. So her stomach does a big dump in the second hour (hence the stomach cramps). This also explains the small appetite because the more stomach the harder to dump that much stuff at once. 

Dr. King wrote some prescriptions so that we could have Occupational and Speech Therapy Assessments done. To make sure Squeaker isn't falling behind in other ways because then we may have a bigger problem on our hands. 

Overall we are still stumped. Everybody agrees that if Squeaker would sleep a lot would get better but know one is offering how to get her to sleep. We've tried milk, formula, pain killers, letting run until she drops, essential oils, baths, massage, chiropractors... an so much more. Trey and I are stumped and the doctors are kind of playing hot potato with us.

On another happy note we took Squeaker to Comcast Cares day about a week ago. It was a lot of fun and her first chance to give "service". We put her up on the sand truck and taught her to say "Do It!" Squeaker was a great morale officer that day :)