18 Month Check Up

Hannah had her 18 month well baby appointment last Friday and she's still growing like a weed. She weighed in at 26.6 lbs and was 34 3/4 inches long. She's past the 99th percentile in height and head circumference and in the 75th for weight. Once again, when they plotted her weight for her height (and didn't account for her age) she was only in the 25th percentile. She's still a tall and skinny girl.

We finally got the doctor to give us some advice on how to get Hannah to go to sleep without screaming herself to sleep. He gave us several ideas and told us to pick one and try it for a week or so and that by then we would know if it was something that might work and if not then move on to the next thing. One of the things he suggested was taking Hannah to the store and letting her pick out some special things just for nap time and bedtime. So, we went to Walmart and bought a new book, a stuffed Ernie, and a pillow. Hannah was REALLY into choosing her special things and was very excited about trying them out. She was hugging Ernie and laying on the pillow in the shopping cart the entire time we were in the store, BUT when it came time to actually try out the new things at nap time later that day she didn't even want them to be within sight! If I even suggested that Ernie might like to sleep in the crib with her she would start pleading, "no, No, NO!" with a note of hysteria in her voice. Same thing with the pillow. It's been a few days now and I can at least get her to let the pillow and Ernie be in her crib, but other than that she doesn't want much to do with either of them. She will push them as far away from herself as she can get them with them still being in the crib and then proceeded as normal crying herself to sleep. So, tonight a few hours before bedtime I decided to do some more talking up of Ernie and the pillow. We took them both out of the crib and sat on the floor and talked about how Ernie was scared to sleep alone and how when Hannah's scared sometimes a hug and a kiss from Mommy helps her to feel better and maybe that would make Ernie feel better too. We hugged and kissed Ernie and told him that it would be ok. We showed him how to sleep on his pillow and we layed on it with him. We read Ernie a story and let him sit on Hannah's lap (she sat on mine) so that he could see the pictures. We sang him a song (Jesus Loves Ernie!) and then put him to bed on his pillow in Hannah's crib (it took some convincing that it was OK for Ernie to borrow her bed for his nap! She wasn't too keen on this idea at first!) and covered him up, said good night, and turned out the lights. Later when it was time for Hannah to go to bed we checked on Ernie to see if he was asleep yet. Oddly enough :) he wasn't so I asked Hannah if he could sit with us and listen to her bedtime story. She didn't want him to, but I pressed the issue pretty hard. I got him into the chair with us and kept her on my lap (and kept her from throwing him off the chair!). Then the battle began on letting Ernie sit close enough so that he could see the pictures. Amidst fervent protests of , "No Ernie! No Ernie!" I managed to get Ernie right up next to her and level with the book and just kept reading and ignoring her pleas. After the book was done I wiggled Ernie over closer to her and sang her her songs. Eventually I even got her to rest her hand on Ernie's head (and sort of brush his hair) while we sang our last song. When I put her in her crib I thought I was being sneaky as tucked Ernie under her arm, but she immediately grabbed him and slammed him onto his special pillow as far from her as she could get him! We may have made some progress tonight, but who knows. The real test will be tomorrow's nap time because nap times are always the worst in the sleep department.

We can tell that Hannah is starting to get that time outs aren't any fun and that she wants to avoid them if she can because she has started to run away when we announce that she is getting a time out! She's also begun to do whatever it is that she thinks will get her out of a time out once it's been announced she is getting one. For example, if the infraction was refusing to say excuse me, as we are carrying her to her mat she will frantically start saying, "excuse, excuse excuse!" Then when we go to get her at the end of the time out she will immediately say, "excuse!" :) Unfortunately this knowledge that she doesn't want time outs hasn't really changed her behavior before the time out yet, but hopefully that will come.

We've been talking a lot lately about the difference between doing something on purpose and on accident. One of the reasons for this is that she will purposely throw something from her highchair such as food or her sippy cup and then she will say, "uh oh!" This used to begin the conversation about how it's not "Uh Oh!" if you do it on purpose. Now, however, deliberate throwing of food or cups is an immediate end to the meal and time out. We've also been working on saying we are sorry for the things we do wrong, especially the things we do that hurt people. She HATES to say she's sorry and will sometimes get time outs for refusing to say it just like when she refuses to say excuse me. Well, yesterday I got confirmation that she actually does understand when saying sorry is appropriate and that she knows the difference between doing something on purpose versus an accident. She was eating her snack and went to put her sippy cup down on her tray and pick up a grape, but she accidentally set the cup on the edge of the tray and it fell to the floor. She looked at me with a panicked look in her eyes and said and signed sorry! I was so proud of her! I praised her over and over and told her what a big girl she was for saying sorry without being told to say it and how I knew that it was an accident that the cup fell on the floor. She seemed really relieved and then also proud of herself too. That's my big girl! :)