David and I decided to attempt taking Amelia to church yesterday. We planned to arrive late and get there in time for the sermon. Unfortunately, Father Houser had already begun the sermon when we slipped into our pew. It was nice to sit in church and give thanks to God for completing our family and allowing us safe travels. Father Houser said a nice prayer for God allowing us to return home safely. Everyone in church was excited to meet Amelia. She did a great job sitting in the pew with us. She ate some snacks and waved to the people around us.
After church, we went home and put Amelia down for a nap. Our friends, Randy and Melissa, brought dinner from Zoe's and came for a visit. It was nice to get to see with them, because it had been a while since Melissa and I had chatted. Amelia LOVED the dinner that they brought and actually ate half of a chicken breast and some orzo! I think she would have eaten the entire chicken breast if I had allowed it.
Last night, we decided to do some different things with bedtime. Amelia has started treating whoever was sleeping in her room as her audience. She has always talked to us, but now she tries to give us her blankets and climb out of her crib to get to us. We decided to let her sleep in her room by herself. If she cried, we would check on her, but we would not sleep in her room. I know that she has not slept in a room by herself before, and it will be a difficult adjustment, but I honestly think that is part of the reason she is waking up at night. She wants to play with whoever is in the room. Last night, David and I both went through the bedtime routine with Amelia. We played in the playroom for a while, gave her a bath, rubbed her with lotion, gave her a bottle, let her brush her teeth, and read her books. She went into the bed without any problem and went to sleep. An hour later, she woke up crying. I went back in there and read another book hoping that my voice would lull her back to sleep. It didn't. For almost an hour, I would leave the room for a few minutes and come back for a few minutes. I know she doesn't understand English yet, but I kept repeating, "Mommy is here, and I will always come back to you when I leave. Daddy and I are in the house. You are safe, and we will check on you. The sun has gone to sleep, and it is now time for you to go to sleep. I will see you in the morning." I went through the schedule for today and would leave the room. I did this repeatedly. She would cry and scream when I left, but the minute I opened the door, she would immediately lay down and get quiet. She finally fell asleep 2 hours after she woke up. She slept in her room by herself until 11:00 this morning! David looked at me and said, "It's a Christmas miracle!". Yes, she should have been up before 11:00. We had done well the past two days with getting up around 9:00, but this morning, I woke up at 10:45. David was about the same time. Tonight, we are trying the same thing. David had a Board of Directors meeting for Camp Winnataska tonight and missed the bedtime routine. Amelia fell asleep instantly, but she woke up an hour later screaming. David was home by then and we went up and checked on her and told her that we were here, and we would always come back. I have been up there three times in the past hour. We are watching the baby monitor. Currently, she is still awake and playing with her blanket. She will cry out for a second and look around and then go back to laying down with the blanket or moving around her crib. I plan to check on her again before heading to bed, but I hope that she will fall asleep soon and stay asleep. I wish that she could drop this 2-3 hour time period that she stays awake before really going to sleep. I plan to talk to our new case manager about this on Thursday and with Dr. Chambers on the 23rd.
Today, we stayed in because the weather was so icky. We played a lot in the playroom, and I let Amelia help me with laundry. She likes to take things out of the dryer. This allowed me to find the child lock mode on the dryer because I am afraid she will try to be helpful in the future. I tried to take a few photos of her tonight while she was crawling around the keeping room, but she was not interested in her having her picture taken. She was in constant motion, so it was difficult to get a good shot of her. Tomorrow, I am actually going to get out of the house with her. We are going shoe shopping. If she is going to walk as much as she is trying, I think she needs to get a pair of hard bottom shoes. Wish us luck!
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