Perchance to dream

I am tired. DH is tired. I know very well that Kathleen is tired since she’s the one who’s been waking us up. I don’t know what it is precisely – it could be teeth, it could be the summer cold that’s developing, it could be a developmental spurt, it could be no reason in particular – but she’s been squawking in the middle of the night. She’ll go to bed with no problems – falls right asleep (usually). Then something happens a few hours later and she wakes with a cry. If DH and I happen to be sleeping, she catapults us out of a sound sleep and sends our hearts racing. We groggily chant in our heads Go to sleep. Please, go back to sleep. Please, go to sleep, baby, while we lie there a few minutes waiting to see if the squawks will resolve themselves or if they’ll disintegrate into full out, wide awake, she’s-standing-in-the-crib cries. It’s bad enough when it happens just once during the night. Last night was three times before she broke into the continuous cries which tell us she needs a parent and a comforting word to fall back asleep. All before midnight, too. And to think I tried to go to bed early.

Ah, well.

I’m inclined to think the disturbed sleep is a combination of things. I had her fan blowing directly on her last night due to the heat we’ve had recently. Although we have AC, her room tends to be one of the warmer rooms in the house during the summer and the fan keeps the air moving. Her skin felt cool when I went in to give her a pat and a kiss after the last outburst. That normally wouldn’t bother her – her internal thermostat is set higher than mine – but I think her teeth and a potential, lingering developmental spurt and that summer cold are causing her to sleep lighter than usual. I’ve heard those eye teeth can be particularly bothersome coming in, too. There are too many things happening at once. Once at least one of those things has passed, she should sleep much more soundly and something like the positioning of the fan shouldn’t wake her any longer.

She’s quite the little trickster these days. I had a hair appointment on Wednesday right after work. I had no time to dawdle getting home. I wanted to cool the car down, though, before settling Kathleen in her seat, so I let her sit in the front seat while the AC ran for a few minutes. I walked around to the passenger door to get her out when I felt the car was cool enough. She was sitting in the driver’s seat. I walked back around to the driver’s side: she’d moved back to the passenger seat. I walked back over to the passenger’s side. I could see her climbing over the center console back to the driver’s seat giggling at me. The little beggar. I finally had to bribe her with the kids’ app I keep on my phone in case of emergency. It makes animal noises and car noises and plane noises and instrument noises: she loves it. It distracted her long enough for me to strap her in and get moving. I once vowed I’d never let her use my phone as a toy. How quickly reality changes our minds.