Natalie & Ryan: Out Of Character

While babysitting today, I started to realize that my day was definitely NOT going to be easy. Something was WAY off about Lilly. So off, in fact, that I actually worried that something was wrong. The parents of the kids I babysit have set up a pack 'n play for Lilly in their bedroom, so that she has somewhere to nap. Usually at nap time, I put her in there with her bottle and she'll eventually fall asleep. (I can't have her feed herself in the living room anymore because she just ends up rolling around, trying to grab all of the toys) Well, today I put her in the crib, and about 10 minutes later she was screaming hysterically. I tried the "cry it out" thing for a bit, but she never fell asleep. I brought her back downstairs with me and she didn't want me to put her down. She just wanted to lay on me, with her head on my chest. Not sleeping, just watching TV.

I could tell the poor thing was SO tired, but was fighting sleep like crazy. I tried again with the crib, but she screamed even worse than the time before. When I went to get her, I didn't even make it back downstairs before she had laid her head down on my chest and fallen asleep. This is so not Lilly. She hasn't slept on me in months! Don't get me wrong, I loved how cuddly she was being. She only wanted to snuggle. But it was the in-between moments of complete crankiness that had me hating whatever she was going through. On top of that, she seemed to be a magnet for bumping her head. No matter where I put her in the living room, she'd manage to lightly bump her head on the side of the wall, on the coffee table, on the TV stand. And each and every time, it would send her into hysteria. And then she would do another thing that she's never done. I'd run over to grab her and calm her down, expecting her to just push off of me, not wanting my condolences, but each time she laid her head down and stopped crying. As if my holding her made it all better.

Maybe she's going through a phase, maybe she's teething, maybe she's not feeling well. I'm hoping she's not having a reaction to hitting her head so hard yesterday. Which, by the way, left a really sad red line across her face. Any advice? Has anyone had this happen?