Subtitled: "Now I know where gray hairs come from"
We had an interesting little series of events go down recently.
For the past week or so, Hollie has been waking up in the morning at 6 or 6:30-ish...very early for her. She's got a few new teeth coming in, so I assumed that was the "root", so to speak (pun intended)...except that each time, she stayed awake to nurse for awhile, telling me that she was actually hungry, not just needing the comfort. Then she would go back to sleep for another hour or two.
It seems obvious, doesn't it?
She wasn't getting enough to eat in the evenings, so she was waking up hungry. Somehow it took me a week to figure that out.
It's not for actual lack of food, I promise. Lack of appetite, rather. She hasn't had much of an appetite at dinner lately. Maybe she feels bedtime coming up and starts winding down on her own...who knows? Maybe I'll figure that one out later in another hindsight epiphany. I'll let you know.
Rather than try to get her to eat more at dinner if she doesn't want to, I'm going to offer her more small snacks during the day. Up til now, I've been giving her food when she tells me she's hungry...which apparently isn't working. Either she's just not telling me she's hungry until she's starving, or I'm just not attentive enough to her early hunger cues and not noticing until she's starving. Equally probable, and equally depressing.
Anyways, it's working! She's been snacking well, and eating well at meals...and sleeping much better again!
Gah. This has been another one of those "horrible mother" moments. I try not to let them get to me; I try to learn from them, and let them pass. Hollie is a healthy, happy, loving, and incredibly forgiving girl.
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