Rough nights...

Well, after 2 very successful nights, we've had some very rough nights. I finally figured out that Gretta's crabbiness in the evenings and during dinner was really her asking to go to bed earlier. I started putting her down around 6pm and she's much happier! Once she's down, I'm able to get dinner with Emma Kate and deal with her hook-up and bath easier, and getting her to bed is so much easier. The first two nights I tried this, Emma Kate also had pretty good nights, just waking maybe once needing consoling, and then a couple times where she settled quickly on her own. But man, the last two nights have been horrendous. She's definitely got night terrors- she wakes up (sometimes as often as every 30 minutes... for hours) and cries, screams, flails around in the bed, and is seemingly inconsolable. Trying to help seems to make it worse, and doing nothing (unfortunately) also makes it worse. It's like there's nothing we can do to make it better. I had a night like that by myself, and it was emotionally and physically exhausting. Last night seemed worse, and it was just incredibly frustrating to be so helpless. The poor thing got so worked up that she started coughing and ended up throwing up in the bed. Of course, while she's throwing up, she's still sort of flailing around, and it was next to impossible to prevent a huge mess. It was awful. Just awful. I feel so horrible for her. I guess the theory is that these kids don't really know what's going on, and they don't remember it when they wake up, but still, you just want to make it all better!

So, tired Mommy and Daddy dragged the girls into town for Gretta's 4 month well-baby checkup (this is the first time her pediatrician has officially seen her as a patient, we've been seeing out-of town docs so far). She's doing awesome, and a lot better than he was anticipating, considering how she spent the first 3 1/2 months of her life! He was really impressed at how strong she was, pushing up, and almost doing a bit of an army-crawl across the table. He figured she had been held so much of her life that these things may be delayed, so he was really happy she was so strong! She weighs 14 lbs 9oz, and is about 25in long, putting her in the 75th percentiles I think. The way the morning worked out, she was supposed to have slept on the way into town, but she never did fall asleep... then she was wide awake through her exams and our discussions about how Emma Kate was doing, then she finally fell asleep towards the end. She had about a 10 minute nap before waking up to get an oral vaccine and an injection! Poor little girl, she was NOT a happy camper! I felt so sad for her, just breaks my heart. But we are relieved that she is so healthy and progressing so well! The doctor was also really pleased to see Emma Kate at her best so far, and after listening to her chest, he said she sounds just about normal! (*almost* normal) So that was great too. I got a lot of great pictures today and will hopefully post them soon, we've been so busy trying to get so much done around here that it's hard to find the time, but it will happen soon!!!