{ {alligator: JellyCat // tee: Hanna Andersson (old) // leggings: Cat & Jack}
{month thirty three} What a ham, Daph! Every time I say this, but I just can’t believe Daphne is two & three-quarters years old. Two is SUCH a fun age, but I know three will be equally as fun! I’m just not, not ready for Daph to be a big kid yet.
Three BIG things happened in this past quarter. One, a huge update on her arthritis. Two, no. more. diapers. And three, a major sleep regression.
To start, Daphne has officially been released from the care of her rheumatologist, meaning her arthritis is officially gone! Hooray! She was released from her OT at the beginning of October since the range of motion in her right arm was completely within normal range. And then in early November we saw the rheumatologist who found absolutely no signs of inflammation (in her elbow or anywhere else) and had no concerns about releasing Daphne from her care. It is SUCH a relief to finally have Daph 100% healed. We don’t know if she will ever get inflammation in her body again, and if she does, we will see the rheumatologist immediately! But for now, we are treating it as a one-time thing that is over and done with. I made an appointment with the rheumatologist for 6 months from now (since scheduling can be a huge wait) and we can cancel if there aren’t any concerns at that time.
The second big thing is that Daphne is completely potty trained and we are ALL DONE WITH DIAPERS! Up until now, Daphne was potty trained during the day (with very few accidents, ever!) and using diapers at nap time and bed time. We weren’t pushing nighttime potty training at all since we learned with Eloise that kids really can decide the timing on it, and then we would put a game plan into action around age 3 if it seemed like Daphne wasn’t taking any initiative. But in late October, Daphne decided that she didn’t want to wear diapers anymore. So we figured it was worth a shot! She had a few accidents, like 3, and then it just seemed to click for her. We use these saddle-type waterproof pads on her bed over her crib sheet (she’s still in a converted toddler bed) which make changing the occasional wet sheet totally do-able; her crib mattress is also waterproof! Obviously we make sure Daphne has used the potty immediately before she goes to sleep, but she has done SO well with potty training both at night and during the day. She is really proud of herself when she uses the potty and also tells anyone else who uses the potty “good job!”
And the last big thing this past quarter is that Daphne has had a MAJOR sleep regression. So, just as an aside, I know we can’t complain too much about sleep, especially with Daphne, because she has always, always been a rockstar sleeper. That being said, these past few weeks (close to two months) has been ROUGH!
It started out immediately after we got back from our Whidbey Island trip back in early-ish October. At the beach house, the girls were sharing a room, and Eloise slept in the bed and Daphne was on a mat on the floor. Daphne had trouble getting herself to sleep, but that’s pretty par for the course when we are away from home. She has always bounced right back into her normal (amazing) sleeping habits as soon as we are home. BUT when we returned home, she didn’t bounce back.
We would do her whole bedtime routine (along with Eloise) and then once we got her into her bed, she would tell us not to turn out the light (not normal) and not to close her door (not normal). And then she would yell for one of us to come “cuckle” (cuddle) with her, and refused to stay in her bed if one of us wasn’t in her room with her (both not normal). Then she would proceed to either yell for one of us or come out of her room, down the hall, and up the stairs if one of us was not in her room. Repeat for 90 minutes. And then around 9 PM, one of us would be sitting in her room next to her bed and she would finally fall asleep. Every. Single. Night. And then on top of that, she’s usually up in the middle of the night – yelling for mama or papa and wandering down the hallway. If we can get her back to sleep before about 6 AM, she will sometimes stay asleep until 7ish, if not, she’s usually up between 6:15 and 6:30 AM. Like I said before, this may seem pretty “normal” for some toddlers, but you have to remember that before our Whidbey Island trip, Daphne was sleeping from 7:30 PM (with no fuss) to 7 or 7:30 AM and would stay in bed and read or otherwise entertain herself.
Surprisingly, her nap time is totally normal! We put her down between 1 and 1:30 PM, and she falls asleep on her own, no problem. The only difference now is that she doesn’t want her door closed.
At this point, things have progressed ever so slightly. Daphne will sleep with the light off. And she generally will yell for us if she’s still awake, and won’t get up out of bed unless we don’t respond or come down to her room. It still takes about 90 minutes of either Aaron or me going downstairs and sitting with her, and then leaving and having her yell for one of us (again) in a few minutes. Yep, evenings are super fun.
Most (sleep) professionals will tell you that sleep regressions are normal and can take up to 6 weeks to resolve; after that, you should probably seek some type of help or intervention. We are beyond 6 weeks, but we know that in a few weeks we will be traveling again, so we are going to wait it out until the New Year to see how things are faring. Best case scenario is obviously that she returns to her normal sleep patterns. [Fingers crossed.] If not, we’ll reach out to our pediatrician (who is super supportive of sleep training) and maybe a sleep professional.
Until then, we are working on her nap time, because even though it is totally normal, it seems like with her new found sleeping time of 9 PM, she is napping too late into the afternoon so she isn’t sleep at 7:30. So, we have trimmed her nap length down slowly, from two hours to 90 minutes to (now) 1 hour to see if that helps. And we are also trying to wake her up from her nap before 3 PM in order to give her enough time between the end of her nap and bedtime. We also may get her an “Okay to Wake” clock to see if that helps? Wish us luck! And ANY tips you have for toddler sleep training!
Daphne dresses herself completely, and with the exception of needing help getting her shirts, dresses, and jammies down from her closet, she gets everything else herself. She is 100% correct with having her shoes on the correct feet (which is sort of amazing). But up until a few weeks ago, she would have her pants and/or shirt and/or underpants on backwards about 75% of the time. Aaron finally got her to understand that tags go in the back, so she is getting close to perfect with her pants and shirts. One huge helper was that Aaron taught her to lay her pants/underpants down on the floor (she sits to put them on) and have the tag side on the floor. She also has learned she can spin her shirt around before she puts her arms in if it ends up backwards after she pulls it over her head. Also, if given her way, Daphne would change about 6 times per day. Which is one of the reasons we have to keep her jammies way up high in her closet! She has a select few tee shirts that she wears on rotation: her Tiny Girl Gang tee (similar), her Molly Moon’s doggie tee (similar; apparently the one we have is no longer available), her “Finding Nemo” tee (from Uniqlo but not available online), her mermaid tee (which she’s wearing above from Hanna Andersson), and her blue tee. And if her sweatpants are clean, she’ll opt for those as well!
And for this quarter’s rendition of Things Daphne Says:
She calls pancakes “pay-pakes” and it’s the best thing ever. We may adopt it in our family as the way to say pancakes even once she stops.
And she calls tomatoes “matos,” band-aids “bay-bades,” and says “lay up” for sit up.
“Mama, where is Eloise?” [Eloise was at school.] “Maybe she’s in Texas?” [I spent a solo long weekend at the end of September in Texas.]
FaceTiming with Daphne from Texas: Aaron: “Where’s Mama, Daph?” Daphne: “Right here!” (Daphne points to the phone screen.)
Aaron was getting frustrated at bedtime since Daph wouldn’t put on her jammies. “Papa, I know you are frustrated because I love you.”
“It’s all gone? Forever?” [This is always regarding food.]
She always says she wants to do everything when she’s five [which is what age she equates to being a “big kid.”]
Me: “Daphne, do you have a new friend at school?” Daphne: “Yes. Not Cooper.” [Daphne’s favorite friend last school year was a little boy named Cooper. She loved him. But he isn’t at her school this year. So when she talks about her new school friends, they are all “Not Cooper.”]
She loves to say “Oh yeah!”
Opens the freezer looking for more to eat for breakfast: “Mama, it’s cold fire!”
Daphne frequently answers the question “Why?”: Because I don’t know.
Points to Eloise’s school picture on the fridge: “Aww, that’s cute! It’s you! Right there!”
I asked the girls what they wanted to drink with dinner. Eloise said “Water, on the rocks.” And Daph said “Yeah, water on the rocks.” When Daph got to the table, she said “Mama, where are the rocks?!” [My late grandmother always ordered her gin martinis “on the rocks,” so it’s pretty cute that the girls order their water “on the rocks.”]
Daph misses Eloise during the week when she’s at school, and she always says “I see Eloise on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Daph was eating pasta and some falls off of the spoon onto the table. With a big sigh she says “Come on pasta. Stay in the bowl.”
“Mama, my body needs a grape. Right now.”
Playing on Mimi’s iPad with Eloise: “This is SO fun!”
After discovering that there was chocolate in her advent calendar (from her December 1st box), Daphne asked if she could have her day’s chocolate now (at 9 AM). Aaron and I both told her “No, Daph, you can have the chocolate after dinner.” And then she immediately said “Can we have dinner now??”
This kid is so sweet, hilarious, and so full of energy. We can’t wait to see what the end of two years brings!
{weight} 33 pounds, 36 inches tall.
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} four bottom teeth, top four teeth, four molars, four canines, four two year molars.
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} fits into 3T still but prefers the fit of 4T.
{diapers} POTTY TRAINED! No more diapers!
{likes} books and reading, music, singing, dancing, babies, any type of accessory (hat, bag or purse, bracelet, necklace), Albee the Alligator, an old remote that she holds up to her ear like a phone, watching and chasing the Roomba, picking her nose, eating, bath time with Eloise, watching big kids or babies, chewing on anything, riding in the car (usually), Eloise, lights, being tickled, talking, her Lovie.
{dislikes} seeing some type of food on a plate that she doesn’t have, having gas, being hungry or tired, having her face or nose wiped off, sunscreen put on her face.
{nicknames} Daph, Daph Daph, Daphers, Bug, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.
And here’s Eloise’s two & three-quarters update! (It’s crazy to think that at this same age, we also had a newborn!)
Happy Thirty Three Months Daph-Daph!
M
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