For the last couple of years Anna has had an allergy to dairy. Whenever she ate it, she would break out on her arms, neck, and head and scratch and itch until she drew blood and scream and yell beyond "normal"(yes, taking into account her status as baby in the family). But, never could you find a girl who loved it more. For the first few months we took her off the stuff I would catch her sticking her fingers in the sour cream, or licking the butter knife. So, we have all suffered along with her as dairy took a back seat in our diet. I mean, you just can't eat a cream cheese everything bagel in front of somebody and expect good results, no matter how mature you might expect them to be.From time to time we would fall off the wagon and let her eat the wedding cake or goldfish crackers everyone else was enjoying only to pay the price later. But, to be fair, sometimes.....sometimes it was totally worth it.
So we tried again the other day and no temper tantrums or itching at all! The days that followed included yogurt, and nachos, and ice cream, and still we saw no negative effects. In fact, a strange and beautiful thing began to happen. Anna fell asleep at 8:00pm with the other kids. Now, I have never been a get-my-baby-to-sleep-through-the-night kind of mom. I haven't even been a get-my-toddler-to-sleep-through-the-night kind of mom. It's not that I recommend it per say, its just that I have no tolerance for the cry-it-out method and its a battle I haven't cared to fight. I stay up entire too late on a regular basis and it just doesn't really bother me if the youngest child it still up happily and quietly playing while the others sleep. Kids do start to fall asleep eventually and I am *usually good with that. So, after two or three nights of Anna being out cold long before 9:00pm and no itching or yelling, I did the thing I wondered if I could ever do again. I bought cream cheese and bagels for breakfast the next day. I love cream cheese and bagels. And I love Anna going to sleep earlier. Last night she was pushing 10:00, but she had napped that day and we were having an early sleep-where-you-want night in honor of Teacher In-service Day(I told you I wasn't big on bedtime). I may or may not be jumping the gun with this post, but a wonderful, beautiful new world is opening for me and I just had to share.
*Just to clarify, I do realize that young children need a good 10+ hours of sleep a night to be healthy and happy. I just don't particularly care when or where they get that sleep as along as it is fairly regular and basically working for everyone.
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