Adventures in Babysitting

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post and all I can say is... I have been EXHAUSTED! Upon returning from Montana, Ella and I got sick. Nothing too terrible, but I found it nearly impossible to take care of myself when Ella needed my attention. She just wanted to eat all of the time, so she got on a new schedule of eating every two hours instead of four. AND she stopped sleeping... well, almost. I was getting up with her 4-5 times in the night, instead of the once I had gotten used to. It continued even after we both got over our colds. Needless to say, I was an absolute wreck. I could hardly function.

SO... after moving her into her own room, we let her cry. And cry. And cry some more. Like for two hours (though we would go check on her periodically). It didn't seem to work. After that long, I would cave in and feed her just to shut her up. I started to think there was something wrong, so I took her to the doctor last Friday. Prognosis: Ella's got my number. She's gained nearly two pounds in the last three weeks (hmmm, I wonder why) and has absolutely nothing wrong with her. The Dr. said to stop feeding her so much and just let her cry. And that night, I let her cry again - only I didn't go in her room at all. Not until she was asleep. And she had a pretty good night. I only fed her once! And the next night, she slept nearly 8 hours before I fed her. Last night, she only slept 5 hours at a time, but I'll take that any day.

The whole experience was overwhelming and quite heartbreaking. I just wanted to pick Ella up, hug her and apologize over and over for putting her through all of it. But I know it's for the best... for all of us. Now if I could only train myself to stop waking up every two hours in anticipation of her crying...