Cupcake Monster
I know you've all been waiting, with bated breath, to see how our sleep boot camp turned out, so I thought I would give you a little update. It's taken me a minute to get down with the blog thing, as things have been slightly haywire around here. See, going back to work gives us about an hour a day of free time, which I realize is probably more than the average working parent gets, but still, it's never ever enough. When I finally reach this sacred hour of the day, my brain waves are running at a very low frequency with minimal oxygen to fuel them, so I am forced to sit on my behind scrolling mindlessly through Etsy and Facebook. Sometimes, I remember to breath, and they spike for twenty minutes. When that happens, I'll swiffer the floor and pretend it's clean for a few weeks, before doing a real mopping job, ya know, with the bucket and everything. That's actually a lie. I pretend it's clean until I notice how the knees of Cora's pajamas are all becoming "earth" colored, and then I feel gross and neglectful, and so I
Which brings me back to sleep boot camp. As you might or might not imagine, laying on the couch at the apex of two bedrooms that could erupt at any point in the night with crying, or children stomping from them, kind of sucks. There is the startle factor for one. It was like trying to fall asleep when you know the night will be full of perfectly timed fireworks in your neighbor's yard. It's all just a wee bit close for comfort. Second, I already go between my own bed and the daybed in the nursery. Adding a third sleeping location simply can't be healthy. Half the time I wake up having no idea where I am, and blink blankly into the night until I get myself sorted out. It's amazing I haven't tried to breastfeed Anthony yet. Then again....whatev...
We didn't throw in the towel right away with the whole couch thing though, because it did seem to show some promise. Ella would inevitably wake up, come out of her room, and whoever was on the couch would walk her back to bed without interaction. At first, she put up a wicked fight, screaming like a monster for about 20 minutes, but eventually, she chilled and got the message. The problem was, although she didn't stay up and play, she also didn't go to sleep. She would just lay there, awake, sighing.
So, the behavior had been modified, but not the underlying issue. That being, that Ella could not sleep.
I did some research, I googled until I was googly eyed and came to a conclusion. Rather than confusing you with
A snapshot for my reasoning behind going gluten free, is because of the quality of wheat that is in foods these days. It's just not your grandmother's wheat anymore. I think this article explains it very well, I just randomly came across it the other day. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/wheat-gluten_b_1274872.html.
As you know, whatever you eat has an impact on your entire body chemistry, especially your brain. I also knew that sometimes our bodies crave foods that we are actually sensitive too, and sometimes have an allergy too. Ella loved whole wheat bread so much that I would find piles of books stacked on top of baby strollers in front of the kitchen counter where we kept the stuff. It appeared that she had been using her architecture skills throughout the middle of the night. The bag would be torn open, a trail of crumbs leading back to her bed. Yes, this was the food to take away, and obviously, ONLY good things would result. I know how well I handle the world when Anthony takes away my Pinot. So, we cleared away all the food containing wheat, and we'll just say it was a rough few days...she may or may not have lived off of string cheese and air.
We've worked it out though - they make GF substitutes for most everything, if you want to pay ten times as much, which we do, because we are ten times as sleep deprived as other people. I make her lunch everyday for school, which is kind of neat because sometimes I pack her a little treat. It's a total PITA when it comes to going out to eat, visiting friends, having treats/desserts/parties etc. because she doesn't totally understand what's going on. The last thing I want to do is tell her that a food is going to make her sick, and I don't want to lie and tell her she has an allergy. So far, I've told her that mommy is NOT good at packing lunches, and since she is going to big girl school next year, and she has to bring her lunch, I need to start practicing NOW. She didn't argue that one. Still, I am TERRIFIED of giving her a complex where she thinks she is "sick", or where she thinks there is such thing as "good food" and "bad food". We're trying to keep it flexible, but GF is NOT flexible, especially when isles upon isles of stores are dedicated to everything gluten filled and processed that children adore.
It's been about a month now of being consistently Gluten free. And, since Anthony is the king of data, he comprised a graph, so that we won't be subjective in our analysis of how her sleep is affected by her diet. Can I ask a serious question though....is there anything sexier than "The King of Data?". Golly! Such a lucky gal. I digress, can't help it.
I wanted to upload the graph, so you could decipher the data, but then as I looked, and saw how obsessive we had become with all our little anecdotal comments, I felt slightly embarrassed, and thought it wise to just give you a summary instead.
Ella now sleeps through the night, more or less. We had one blip where she was up multiple times one night, but she had a cupcake that day at school, so of course I blamed the gluten. I thought this blip was an indicator that we were on the right track, however, we went to my in laws house for dinner the other night, and she had a mac daddy size helping of mac n cheese, AND cake, AND slept like a champ. Oh, did I mention no melatonin anymore?
So after all our hard work, is it possible that it was all for nothing? Quite possibly....Still, here are my non-scientific conclusions from our non scientific data driven study:
1. Whether gluten plays a role in Ella's sleep or not, it is an unnecessary product, and from what I can tell, is evil. Almost anyone who eliminates it from their diet will probably feel WAY better.
2. Since eliminating it from my own diet, I have almost no spikes and dips in blood sugar, leading to much fewer blood sugar related headaches.
3. I get maybe 1 migraine a week, down from 3 or more a week - that alone is amazing to me.
4. When you eliminate gluten, you have no choice but to eat more whole foods, so you just are healthier in general. Convenience foods no longer exist, unless you want to pay out of you bum.
5. Ella has been forced to deal with eating different foods, because she was starving.
6. Rest assured that when you have spent hours researching to help your child with their problems, and you believe you have FINALLY found the solution, they will miraculously recover without any need for your brilliant interventions. Everything, yes EVERYTHING is a phase. Even if it lasts a year, it's a phase. It appears that we really do go to the ends of the earth for love, or sometimes just to the end of 18 pages in a google search. As parents, we often do it only for our own sanity anyway, and as always, we learn they are, and will be fine. They are better with us, but they do surprisingly well without us too.
I have to remember to stop worrying so much about making sure my child will be okay, and start realizing that she already is okay, just like this. Sometimes it's okay to sit back and put down the adjustment tools, and just let her be. If it feels good to me, it probably feels great for her.
