Sleep Update

Jim posted in June our sleep issues with Bear. I would love to report that we now have a happily sleeping baby Bear who goes down on demand and stays asleep all night. But I can’t. Unfortunately Bear has been blessed with the stubborn gene and a really good set of lungs that I’m sure have been keeping up our neighbors. It was a big deal when we were able to get him to go to sleep without nursing at his bed time. It was awesome when we could get him to go back down without nursing after his first initial waking up somewhere around 10 pm. Even better was when we could get him to take his afternoon nap without nursing. Now we are trying to take the 2 am nursing away and he is not a happy camper. Unfortunately for him his momma is even more of an unhappy camper so he has to suffer. He started to pinch, scratch and pull at his 2 am feeding waking me up and keeping me in severe pain. I was willing to let him nurse as long as I could sleep through it. Once that stopped and I went for almost a week being woken up and kept up by his little shenanigans well, I was no longer playing that little game. So his crib got lowered and Jim and I switched sides on the bed and we do not have a happy little Bear from 2-4 am. It’s only been three nights and each change has taken us two weeks to implement so I’m suspecting we still have a few more nights of unpleasantness.

I came across an article in Baby Magazine this week that just made me feel better. I’ve been doubting our process and feeling like I should have sacrificed my sleep in the early months instead of now when he’s more stubborn and feeling guilty because he is so unhappy and has dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and feeling like we just did it all wrong. But this article basically says if you have a baby you are going to go through sleep issues it’s just the way it is. We all deal with it in different ways and there is no “right” way. Even if she’s wrong I like it and I’m going with it. I am blessed with a husband willing to do all the hard work because without him I'm not sure if we would be getting any sleep at all. It's almost (ok really) frustrating that Jim can put him down without there even being a fuss but if it's me he will scream and scream! He's got his mommy's number.

My other tactic has been to wear him out in the morning so he will sleep his whole nap without waking up. I will do just about anything to keep him awake in the car to get him in the house and put him to sleep in the crib! I've gotten them both so tuckered they have just fallen out a few times utterly exhausted and of course provided me with the cutest pictures!

Progress

The boys have not been very happy with my meals the last two weeks. Tonight was no different. Bear started doing his smack smack smack on the high chair sending all his food flying. The carpet is literally covered with his uneaten meal. Coop started feeding me his meal so I knew he didn’t like it. So a little later I pulled out their favorite- hummus. Bear would come up and only eat it if I gave him the spoon. He would take it and run off to eat it then bring me back the spoon for more. Cooper seeing this ran to the silverware drawer opened it, reached in, felt around and pulled out a spoon and handed it to me. He’s never done that before and I just cracked up.

Even bigger news: Bear has figured out how to drink from a straw. He has refused every sippy cup no matter the brand. I threw out a whole bag of cups he wouldn’t use. But yesterday he was playing with my water bottle and all of a sudden he was getting little sips in. All day I tried to get him to take sips from the water bottle to no avail. But tonight after their bath Coop was drinking some of my water and Bear comes over and starts blowing then sucking and getting sips of water. He did it over and over and actually enjoying his drink! When he was done he put it back on my lap looked me right in the eye and said, “Dat you.” A little while later he comes back pulls it down and takes a few more sips and says, “Got it!” That was the first I had heard him say that so I was tickled.

Not My Babies Anymore

Today was a day where I realized it’s time to do a little bit more of what I think is the hardest part of parenting- letting go. Coming out of the gym Bear was eager to get out of my arms and walk on his own. He is now just holding my hand and walking down the stairs himself! (He tries to go right behind Cooper and touch Coop’s head after he makes it down each stair.) I was so impressed with him and when we got home he wanted to walk where I used to carry him. He is getting so independent. Then I look up and see that Cooper is going down the big staircase by himself and out of eyesight! Fear lurched in my heart as I thought he might tumble down the stairs but he was fine and waiting for me to clap for him that he did it all by himself.

We made it downstairs to the apartment and I dropped our stuff inside and when I came back outside I saw Bear literally running towards a flock of geese screaming at the top of his lungs! Again with the panic in my heart. I had this image of them turning on him and chasing him and biting him. Instead he ended up splitting the flock in half and they avoided him carefully. Then Cooper, in a shocking twist, took off running at the other half and seriously chased one half of the flock way down to the end of the apartment. I had to call him back. Then I just sat there and watched them as they explored. Cooper is into picking berries off bushes and handing them to me. Bear started kicking the soccer ball. It was just one of those days where I realized (yet again) my boys are growing up. Then Bear started eating goose poop and I laughed because he reminded me he’s still my baby. Whew, I was getting worried.

Got It Like That

I just thought this e-mail from Katie about her almost 3 year old daughter, Emily, was way too cute:

Subject: Cute Story
When I say "who is my favorite baby?" Emily responds "Sully!" Then she proceeds to be Sully and I have to address her as Sully and she calls me Ms. Abbie. Quite an imagination!
Katie

Then-----
I talked to Chris today who has a 4 year old daughter, Carly, who asks about Cooper and Sully all the time and had to create a nickname for her baby brother Cason (she wanted to call him Bear). Our boys are creating quite a stir with the ladies already!!!