Sniffles and Hacking

Marcie finished her antibiotic eye drops on Saturday for the eye infection. Guess what she woke up with yesterday? A cold. The poor child hasn't gone (I think maybe literally) a whole week healthy in I-don't-remember-how-long! A part of me wonders why. We don't have her in day care. (But her brother is in preschool and apparently likes to bring home germs!) And a part of me thinks, Well, at least she's building up her immune system now.

She had her 18 month check up yesterday. I had class so Jason took her. They wanted to give her vaccinations even though she has a cold. They explained that it's still recommended by the American Pediatrics Association to do it and that most doctors will. Jason told them they can wait a week for her immune system to build up some. She's been on antibiotics almost continuously for so long-- her body needs some time to heal itself. And this cold. They were pretty high-pressure, but Jason held his ground. She'll go back next week for the shots.

Here are her stats:
Age: 18 months, 1 day
Height: 32.75 inches (80th percentile)-- this is less than before. At her 1-year, she was in the 90-something percentile.
Weight: 27 lbs (80th percentile)-- so for all those people out there who comment what a "healthy" girl she is, she is exactly proportionate!
Head Circumference: 47 cm (65th percentile). We think her head is large now! Not too big for her body, just large. I can't imagine if her noggin were also in the 80th percentile!

We're also sleep training. Marcie goes down to bed like a dream now (thanks to Jason). No tears. She just lays down in bed and puts herself asleep. It took about 5 days to train her to do that. But she's still waking up at least once in the night-- and sometimes twice and screaming for me. Then falling right back asleep if one of us goes in with her.

I've been really paranoid (that's not the right word for it-- cautious is more appropriate) about sleep training. Though Marcie has transitioned into our family beautifully, I know that sometimes children only exhibit attachment problems at night. One school of thought is that if you don't show up when your child is screaming for you, she will feel abandoned. Another school of thought is that if you're there for hr the other 98% of the time, it's all fine. I don't think either is necessarily right 100% of the time. And I think that with children adopted in the later parts of infancy from an institution or from foster care, you really have to trust your gut.

I can hear in Marcie's scream that she is not actually scared. Her nighttime screaming and crying is her tantrum screaming and crying. And so I've taught her that if she pitches a fit, I will come. It's time to re-teach her. It's important that she know how to put herself back to sleep.

Last night she woke up twice. The first time, I was still up. After a couple minutes, I just appeared in her doorway and told her, "Mommy's here. Go back to sleep, Marcie. Lay down." and she did. The second time, she didn't calm down from my words. So I went into the room and rubbed her back and told her I loved her and it was time to sleep. I kissed her goodnight and left the room.

She woke me up again around 5:45am this morning, which is normal for her. So I think that's a good sign. Of course, I've said that before and been wrong. Plus, apparently she woke up Monday and Tuesday nights, too, and I didn't hear her-- so Jason went in with her. He's not up yet, so it's possible he spent part of last night with her, too.

Anyway, that's what we're up to these days!