Saturday, April 5, 2008

Rub a Dub Dub

I've been up since 5. That would be one thing, if I hadn't also fallen asleep around midnight and gotten up at 3 for 15 or 20 minutes with some random kid. I don't even want to talk about it. Yuck.

Claire had an awful time falling asleep last night (hence the midnight) and I wanted to share what has been working for her... Also, I am sleep deprived and I don't want to forget.

Do you remember being a teenager and getting growing pains? No, not the cheesy show with Kirk Cameron, I mean actual growing pains. BJ had them so badly that they gave him an unpronounceable diagnosis (phonetically it's ASHgood SCHlaters, but I'm not even going to google it because it probably has 3 p's and a silent q), which basically meant, "Really sore legs and knees, quit growing so fast, Stretch."

Several times in the last few weeks, we've had a really hard time getting Claire to sleep. She just kicks and kicks her little legs. So, one night not too long ago I thought, "Let's try rubbing those angry legs," and within moments she was calm. It took some time for her to actually fall asleep, but I think I'm on to something here, folks...

It makes sense, intuitively, that if the growing we do as teenagers can be painful, then the growing that we do as infants (which is at a much greater rate) could be, too. Poor babies, though, can't express it any way but by crying (and kicking).

So, next time your baby can't sleep, try a little leg and back massage. Couldn't hurt, might help.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had that same "disease" as BJ had. It was aweful...I couldn't even participate in any sports because it hurt to bad to run. Luckily you grow out of the "disease" when you stop growing!!

-cousin Kelly