Baby's Don't Cry For No Reason
The past two days, Nina has not wanted to go to bed. Actually, that is an understatement. If we put her in her crib, she will scream. Scream. Not cry. She will scream at the top of her lungs. We'll let this go on for a while, then maybe after 20 minutes, we'll go get her, try all the usual medicines, etc. And then put her back in her crib.

Yesterday's Scenario
After an evening at my parent's house, with my parents occasionally totally disrespecting me by doing whatever they felt with their granddaughter (Key Lime Pie + 13 month old kid = Hmmm), we got home later than her bedtime. So, rather than getting to sleep at seven, it was around 9. And she screamed and screamed.

We got her up after a while and did the ambesol (for teething pain), Motrin (for pain and fever reduction), and checked to see if she was hungry (she wasn't), and I'm not sure if we had to change her diaper (just pee if it was) and then put her back down.

Some screaming. Some more screaming. After 20 min of screaming I went in and made sure she was horizontal. She wasn't. She will stand in her bassinet and scream. If she is put lying down, she might go to sleep. But she never falls asleep standing up. After I lay her down again, 4 minutes of crying, with only a little screaming involved, and she fell asleep.

She would occasionally wake up crying and fall right back asleep. This continued until 11 p.m. Then she slept through the night.

Baseline, Just So You Know
Now, how that story, and the one I'm about to tell differ from what normally goes on is this. Usually, She's been fed, changed, and played with. We put her in bed and she cries mildly for 4 minutes and then falls asleep. This is around 7:30 to 8 p.m. She sleeps through the entire night, and stays sleeping when I wake up at 5:30 to get ready for work. That's a normal night. Yes, a true fantasy for a lot of people with infants, but it's normal for us. Oh, and did I mention that our daughter will use the toilet on command. Yeah. We rock.

Last Night's Scenario
I get home from work and we play some. Alison wants to putter around outside so Nina and I play in the little turtle sandbox that we'll use as a kiddie pool.

Then after that, we had some lousy Lipton brand Red Beans & Rice with some pan fried chicken. I fed Nina some pieces of hot dog, cheerios, a little sweet potato baby food, and quite a bit of the red beans & rice. We played some afterward and she was fine, but had the hickups. Then, we tried to put her to bed.

The screamed and screamed. After 20 minutes we checked on her. We did all the normal stuff except feed her, as we knew she was full, and put her back down. She screamed and screamed. After 20 minutes, we checked on her and this time we decided she needed a bottle. I thought that maybe the table food, though she did eat a lot of it (which was Alison's point why we didn't give her the bottle at her normal time), maybe table food doesn't matter that much in the whole filling thing.

Nina drank nearly the entire bottle and then puked all over herself, Alison, the bed, a cat, and the floor. I have pretty good evidence that it was the hotdog that was probably upsetting her stomach.

What I Left Out
What I left out of the story was me absolutely freaking out due to Nina's constant screaming. Sure, a little screaming and I can make jokes about bats falling out of the air, but constant, sustained screaming. It's very psychologically attacky on me. I couldn't take it anymore. I was about to go on a drive and leave Alison with Nina for a while. I mean, I was really losing it. "Can you make that child of yours stop?" and crazy stuff like that.

But, after the puke, she was better. We let her play a little before putting her down again.

Actually, I have no idea when she went to bed, as I fell asleep on the bed when I was supposed to be watching Nina while Alison did something. I remember Alison waking me up and making me change clothes and take out my contacts. Alison said this morning, "I was out." But, to keep Neener from screaming bloody murder, I think we'll lay off the junk food for a while.

Oh, and that screaming the night before. No more key lime pie. Period.
- posted by Nick Postagulous @ 8:08 AM