Dawning of a new era

Sorry for the long delay since my last posting, but Mark and I have both been overwhelmed by the transition to leaving Gabrielle with our nanny, Meaghan. The first week went terribly - Gabrielle cried lots and was very clingy and whiny. We cut short her first week with Meaghan and took care of her ourselves on Friday. The weekend was not great either - Gabrielle had several tantrums (isn't she too young for tantrums?), one of which lasted two hours. We finally gave up trying to console her and put her in her crib and let her fall asleep. She kept sobbing in her sleep - it was really heartbreaking. Her eating was off, she refused to be consoled, she screamed bloody murder at bedtime, and awoke several times during the night. We had guessed that the transition to Meaghan was upsetting Gabrielle to her very core and all her systems were reacting. Needless to say, we weren't looking forward to Monday and starting the nightmare all over again. 

I'm not a religious person, but I can say that a miracle happened on Monday. We left in the morning and Gabrielle started to cry. I phoned Meaghan once I got to work and she told me that Gabrielle stopped crying soon after we left and had been perfectly cheerful all day. She was eating, wasn't crying, and was in a genuinely good mood. That night, Gabrielle went to sleep without a fuss and slept most of the night. She woke up in a great mood, unlike the moods she had been treating us to for the past week. All day Tuesday was happy happy, as was Wednesday. 

I guess we can attribute all this to a couple of things. First, Meaghan is fantastic and Gabrielle obviously likes her. She's never upset to see Meaghan in the morning, she just doesn't like when we leave her. When I come home in the afternoon, she's very happy to see me, but she's very smiley and friendly with Meaghan too. Second, Gabrielle had a giant molar come in last week. I'm pretty sure it broke through the gum sometime on the weekend. That, more than anything, might have been the reason for her sudden personality change from adorable demon child to hateful demon child and back. Just kidding. Sorta.

Anyways, all is good for now. Mark and I are very grateful that Meaghan has been so patient with Gabrielle - it seems to have paid off. Stay tuned.