Saturday, March 8, 2014

{Non}Sleeping Beauty

There are two questions that we often get asked regarding Nora's adjustment and development:

1.  Is she sleeping any better?
2.  How is her speech coming along?

In all honesty, I cringe at both of these questions as I can feel myself getting defensive, protecting my daughter and her insecurities and challenges.  Let's start with speech, this is an easy one - click over to Ashley's blog and see her post from yesterday ... I can relate to every single word, Ashley's words beautifully and honestly describe where we are also at with Nora and her speech. 

Now, let's talk sleep or lack thereof.  This is where I feel more protective as a common response we get from others, typically those a bit more removed from our family, is "she's still not sleeping through the night?"  And, then there's the dreaded, "but you haven't sleep trained her?"  It only it were that simple, I have to remind myself not to question our parenting of Nora.  We will never have intimate details of her first 15 months of life and how this plays into her nighttime fears and insecurities.  So for now, we will prayerfully, intentionally and unconditionally love this girl, and we will choose to rejoice over Nora's beautiful adjustment into our family, celebrating the adoption "hurdles" that we have overcome.
Photo taken early one morning this week after Nora was up for a two hour middle of the night stint ... rosy cheeks and all smiles ... thankful ...

2 comments:

Kim said...

Her first 15 months and then major surgery once she's home...so many things for a little person. You're doing amazing. My little guy pockets food and eats from the trash can...no matter how much food I leave on the table within reach. Counselor thinks this is how he acts out his insecurities and I was personalizing it and then she said, "even if you were a perfect parent, you cannot erase the trauma he has incurred in his lifetime and healing is a long process. Just keep loving him." It was a waterworks moment, I realized I'd somewhere along the line decided I must heal him and was reminded that is God's work and he is doing it bit by bit everyday...I just need to keep loving him. You are a great example.

Leggio said...

Oh girl......Mia isn't sleeping either. Two years home and she gets up one to four times a night. The crazy thing is she was a good sleeper until December. She is so adorable!!!!! I hope yall are starting to warm up in the North. We got soft LOA yesterday and are so excited!!!!! Love and warm whishes your way.