I have come to realize that writing is cathartic for me. When I have things to “work out” writing about them helps me. If life is going smoothly I don’t write as often. So if you don’t hear from me, consider it a good thing. In light of recent peer pressure I am back on the horse. This time, though, everything is going splendidly. I will fill you in on recent achievements, milestones, challenges and the general parent deemed cuteness of our baby.
Since Sleep has been the topic of my latest posts, I will start there and move on to more exciting things. Sleep has been great, we are still getting lots of it and usually 2-3 naps a day with a total of about 4 hours of naps. On occasion we have had regressions and I have learned that the so called “cortisol response” written about in so many baby books is no laughing matter. When babies get overly tired and miss a nap, their body responds like it is under stress and they become hyper to deal with the lack of sleep. What does this mean in my life…NO NAPS… and BAD NIGHTIME SLEEP! Everytime it happens I am reminded that naps and bedtime go hand in hand. If one is bad, so is the other. And so I remain a protector of sleep, despite the eye rolling of people that know me, the comments of people who don’t, I stay true to what works best for our family…a well rested baby.
Most recently sleep has been interrupted because of a natural regression. When babies learn new tricks, their little brains go into overdrive and they actually practice them while asleep and wake themselves up, resulting in temporary bad sleep patterns & night wakings. For those of you with kids, I learned about this from the pediatrician who reccomended two book called Touchpoints and Wonder Weeks, which explain these regressions and the predictability of them. Anyhow, Carson’s latest trick is rolling over in his crib and crawling, rather, scooting around. He’s been rolling over for months now, but just started doing it in his crib. He’s a back sleeper and now he rolls to his stomach, I go flip him back over when he starts to cry, he rolls over again, looks deliberately at the door to see if I am going to come in and save him and it continues over and over again like a scene out of Groundhog Day.
While this game was very amusing to him, it began to get old with me pretty quickly. Playtime is not quite as much fun at 4am. So rather than continuing to entertain him during his little tricks, I stopped rolling him back over. Boy was he pissed! Lucky for me he quickly learned that he can fall asleep on his stomach if I don’t interfere. It took about 30 minutes of some good crying before he figured it out, but he now sleeps on his stomach, on his back or his side and for the moment, balance is restored.
While he sleeps I have seen him do all kinds of funny things he is learning, he laughs, he grabs at the air, he screams, he makes this noise “abbaaabaaababb” which is really quite entertaining to listen to, anytime of day. I am finding the antics of my son to be quite hilarious.
Speaking of entertainment – we have started on the baby food. Three times a day we put him in the highchair and feed him his real food. Some he likes, some he doesn’t, either way, it gets everywhere which is, again, hilarious. My favorite is when it gets in his hair and under the folds in his chin, I suppose it is my favorite because Andy is responsible for bathtime. We have found it much easier to feed the little tyke if we eat at the same time. He is fascinated with watching us eat, so we eat a spoonful, then he eats a spoonful as though to mimic us. He’s just started to try and feed himself, which if left unguided, his mouthful of strained peas ends up as an eyeful of strained peas, which is, you guessed it…hilarious.
Speaking of food, he’s still packing it away as he remains top of his class in height and weight. 21 lbs of baby is no small feat to carry around. I will tell you, next time you see some young mom or dad carrying their baby in a front baby carrier, it may seem like a very blissful hike through a national park or even through the county fair. I am here to tell you- its not! Feel sorry for them, feel very sorry for them. Ten minutes of hiking with that load will wear you out and I guarantee whatever parent is carrying the baby will be secretly harboring ill will to the nonbabycarrying parent after just twenty!
Not to get distracted from the topic of food and therefore mouths… two teeth have arrived, front and center on the bottom. Lucky for us teething hasn’t been to bad so far. One day of a slight fever and he was fine. Let the chewing begin!
While crawling doesn’t seem to be in the very near future, mobility is coming none the less. I’m not sure how to describe the technique or even the mechanics of how he actually achieves this but he does manage to move. I guess the closest thing to it would be swiveling. He can’t go forward, he can’t go backward, but he can swivel. To get where he wants to go he uses either small swivels or big swivels and eventually he’ll get to that toy out of reach. Yup - Hilarious. I could save him the trouble and get them for him, but really, its not really as much fun to watch.
Apparently Carson thinks he is hilarious too, because he laughs, A LOT. Not only is he very ticklish on his feet, sides, under his chin and his armpits he laughs at me, he laughs at Andy, he laughs at the dog if she happens to walk by, he laughs at a fly that buzzes near his head, he laughs when he sucks on his toes, he laughs at almost anything. We are blessed with a happy baby. As the pediatrician put it, watch out for that one, he’s gonna cause some mischief! I have no doubt about that, but I’m pretty sure it will be the hard to punish for because you can’t help but laugh, kind of mischief. Hmmm…kind of sounds like another closely related person in my family.
So life at the Meier’s goes on as we continue to sleep, not sleep, worry, not worry, work, relax, enjoy and most of all LAUGH.
Until next time,
Kelly
Friday, August 7, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
....and We're Back!
Last I wrote we were having some big time sleep problems and I swore off blogging until they were resolved. So Hi-dee-ho! We are back in business. I am pleased to announce that Carson is sleeping thru the night on a regular basis. I don't mean to brag, but his sleeping throught the night is about 7:30 pm to about 6am. This is fantastic for us! Somehow I am still going to bed at 8:30 and can't seem to catch up on, oh, only 3 or 4 months of sleep deprivation, but its getting better. I have less and less days that I need to take a nap.
So how'd we get from there to here? Easy, we let that little baby cry! Awww..... I know, but hey it was worth it. We used what is called the Ferber method. Your baby has to be at least 3 months old to try this out and we waited a little longer than that. The pediatrician basically told me it was the only thing left to try. As she so tactfully put it "Kelly, he's already crying in your arms, so let him cry in his crib and leave you out of it." Good point, I thought. So off we went on night of torture number one. When I say torture, I meant torture for us, because really, there is nothing worse than listening to your baby cry for prolonged periods. Perhaps I should start a club where parents switch babies and do this method for each other. Its much easier to listen to another person's baby cry than your own. I think I'm on to something there.
Anyhow, babies basically have to LEARN to put themselves to sleep by themselves without help. They think they can only fall asleep if mommy or daddy is rocking them and have to learn how to self soothe. So if you can put your baby to bed drowsy but still awake and he can sleep you are winning the battle. Most babies, however, have to cry to figure out they can do it on their own. So here's how it went with the Glorious Ferber Method:
DAY ONE- put Carson down after his bedtime routine (routine also very important but won't get into that here) at 8:30 so he was extra tired. He immediately started crying. Kelly and Andy exit stage left and sit on the deck with a glass of wine and a baby monitor. The plan is to go in and check on the poor tyke at intervals of 1, 3, 5 and then every 10 minutes until he falls asleep and NO PICKING HIM UP. We were allowed to pat him, talk to him briefly and then leave the room until the next time. 36 minutes later.....a sleeping baby. Thank goodness, we made through night one, or so we thought.
Then Hellooooo midnight....should we do it again? We decided to take all the pain in one night rather than spreading it out and doing the middle of the night wakings another night. 32 minutes later (yes we timed it,as each moment was like a night being waterboarded for us softhearted parents) he fell asleep again. This was the only waking that night.
Day 2 - He cried for a bout 15 minutes each nap and then fell asleep and that night NO CRYING he fell asleep in his crib after sucking his finger for about 5 minutes. HOORAY!
Now, we have had some set backs and not every night is perfect, but for us that's ok, he is after all just a baby. We kept him on somewhat of a sleeping routine to establish some consistency for about 2 weeks and now we can pretty much drop him in his crib and run. We see that he is tired (which still happens about every two hours) and I can take him upstairs put him down immediately and he'll hang out making noise or pulling his toes for a while and usually falls asleep within 20 minutes. He'll occassionally still wake in the middle of the night but usually cries for a few seconds and then falls back asleep. If not, I'll go in for a minute and that seems to do the trick. Boy is life getting easier. The world sure looks a lot clearer when the whole family is sleeping!
Until the next battle,
Kelly
So how'd we get from there to here? Easy, we let that little baby cry! Awww..... I know, but hey it was worth it. We used what is called the Ferber method. Your baby has to be at least 3 months old to try this out and we waited a little longer than that. The pediatrician basically told me it was the only thing left to try. As she so tactfully put it "Kelly, he's already crying in your arms, so let him cry in his crib and leave you out of it." Good point, I thought. So off we went on night of torture number one. When I say torture, I meant torture for us, because really, there is nothing worse than listening to your baby cry for prolonged periods. Perhaps I should start a club where parents switch babies and do this method for each other. Its much easier to listen to another person's baby cry than your own. I think I'm on to something there.
Anyhow, babies basically have to LEARN to put themselves to sleep by themselves without help. They think they can only fall asleep if mommy or daddy is rocking them and have to learn how to self soothe. So if you can put your baby to bed drowsy but still awake and he can sleep you are winning the battle. Most babies, however, have to cry to figure out they can do it on their own. So here's how it went with the Glorious Ferber Method:
DAY ONE- put Carson down after his bedtime routine (routine also very important but won't get into that here) at 8:30 so he was extra tired. He immediately started crying. Kelly and Andy exit stage left and sit on the deck with a glass of wine and a baby monitor. The plan is to go in and check on the poor tyke at intervals of 1, 3, 5 and then every 10 minutes until he falls asleep and NO PICKING HIM UP. We were allowed to pat him, talk to him briefly and then leave the room until the next time. 36 minutes later.....a sleeping baby. Thank goodness, we made through night one, or so we thought.
Then Hellooooo midnight....should we do it again? We decided to take all the pain in one night rather than spreading it out and doing the middle of the night wakings another night. 32 minutes later (yes we timed it,as each moment was like a night being waterboarded for us softhearted parents) he fell asleep again. This was the only waking that night.
Day 2 - He cried for a bout 15 minutes each nap and then fell asleep and that night NO CRYING he fell asleep in his crib after sucking his finger for about 5 minutes. HOORAY!
Now, we have had some set backs and not every night is perfect, but for us that's ok, he is after all just a baby. We kept him on somewhat of a sleeping routine to establish some consistency for about 2 weeks and now we can pretty much drop him in his crib and run. We see that he is tired (which still happens about every two hours) and I can take him upstairs put him down immediately and he'll hang out making noise or pulling his toes for a while and usually falls asleep within 20 minutes. He'll occassionally still wake in the middle of the night but usually cries for a few seconds and then falls back asleep. If not, I'll go in for a minute and that seems to do the trick. Boy is life getting easier. The world sure looks a lot clearer when the whole family is sleeping!
Until the next battle,
Kelly
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Everyone Poops
Our Family has been passing around this book called Everyone Poops for a few years now. For some reason we find great humor in poop and other bodily functions. That said, I would be remiss if I didn't share at least on good poop story.
Each week I think "Oh, this is the grossest thing I've ever seen." I am always wrong. Always. I thought for sure the time Carson had a blowout so bad it went up to his neck, in his armpit even a little in the ear, was gonna be the topper, especially when I ran him to the sink and he proceeded to pee across the room. I was wrong. Again.
Earlier this week, unbeknownst to me, another blowout occured in the beloved bouncy chair. I went to pick him up and still didn't notice. Finally, I smelled something after I'd been carrying him around for a while so up to the changing table we went. That's when I noticed the Side Blowout (I have names for them now.) This Side Blowout went down his leg to his precious little baby foot. So I spent about 5 or 10 minutes wiping him down, ran him under the hose feature on our sink and thought all was well. Then I looked down. Smeared across my shirt...you guessed it poo. Smeared down my pants....you got it...poo. Everywhere that baby touched....poo. Into the wash my clothes go. As I pass by the changing table where I initially noticed said Side Blowout, you guessed it, the poo that had been on my clothes was now all over the front of the dresser. In the slots where the drawers pull out, on the knobs, everywhere. I had to take out all the drawers, wipe down the tops and inside of the dresser. I'm sure you can imagine my state of my mind as I was doing this. So this, my friends is my grossest story yet. Until next time,
Kelly
Each week I think "Oh, this is the grossest thing I've ever seen." I am always wrong. Always. I thought for sure the time Carson had a blowout so bad it went up to his neck, in his armpit even a little in the ear, was gonna be the topper, especially when I ran him to the sink and he proceeded to pee across the room. I was wrong. Again.
Earlier this week, unbeknownst to me, another blowout occured in the beloved bouncy chair. I went to pick him up and still didn't notice. Finally, I smelled something after I'd been carrying him around for a while so up to the changing table we went. That's when I noticed the Side Blowout (I have names for them now.) This Side Blowout went down his leg to his precious little baby foot. So I spent about 5 or 10 minutes wiping him down, ran him under the hose feature on our sink and thought all was well. Then I looked down. Smeared across my shirt...you guessed it poo. Smeared down my pants....you got it...poo. Everywhere that baby touched....poo. Into the wash my clothes go. As I pass by the changing table where I initially noticed said Side Blowout, you guessed it, the poo that had been on my clothes was now all over the front of the dresser. In the slots where the drawers pull out, on the knobs, everywhere. I had to take out all the drawers, wipe down the tops and inside of the dresser. I'm sure you can imagine my state of my mind as I was doing this. So this, my friends is my grossest story yet. Until next time,
Kelly
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sleep
I have had some feedback from you all and thanks, its all been helpful. I do want to make sure I am clear that I don't expect Carson not to wake at night. So don't worry! Of course, I know he is young and this is normal. My main problem is that he is hard to GET to sleep and requires up to an hour and a half or rocking. I have been rocking him up to 5 hours a day (good for the waistline!). Just in case I made anyone think I was not being realistic. When he wakes we're up for over an hour in the middle of the night and before naps trying to soothe him back. We feed him, of course, but he eats for a moment and loses interest, so hunger isn't the issue. The difficult to soothe is really my problem, not the night wakings. We are working on teaching him self soothing skills to get him to fall asleep on his own without expecting the rocking, which isn't working for either of us! Don't worry, we're under the guidance of our pediatrician! I'll keep you posted in a week or so, I don't want to jinx myslef again!
Kelly
Kelly
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
......And Its Back
The sleep monster is back. He woke twice last night and napped horribly yesterday. He cried for hours during the day. Pediatrician has been called and we're buying the Ferber book today to learn about letting babies cry in a controlled environment. If anyone has advice please comment. For now, we're tired and a little upset, but we still love our baby. At least we have 3 good nights of sleep to deal with this. Until later,
Kelly
Kelly
Sunday, May 10, 2009
And on the Sixth Night He Rested
We’ve had a monster in our house, we’ve had little troubles from time to time but this week we’ve had a monster. Not a little bite at your ankles, chihauha kind of monster but a big scary, Where the Wild Things Are kind of monster. It came in the form of sleep deprivation. It cried, it fussed, it wouldn’t eat, it wouldn’t sleep. It made my cry, it made me sob, it made my husband come home from work early 3 times in a week. This monster made him lose it in the middle of the night and it brought us both to our sleep deprived knees. After a week of fighting this monster one nap at a time we finally got our baby back.
I thought it all started on our trip north, but now I know it began before that. I knew sleep was important for a baby, but now I respect what I will call THE SLEEP from now on. It deserves all capital letters because when it is disrupted, it rules your life. When it is good, your life as a parent is happy, content and you love your sweet little baby. When people congratulate you on your new baby, you smile and say “thank you” instead of thinking “if you only knew.” You are proud to be a parent when sleep is good. When its not, the monster comes and this is my story of chasing him away.
In order to really respect THE SLEEP I had to understand THE SLEEP. And thankfully, because I went a little bit crazy a couple of weeks ago (see previous post) I had done enough reading to have a basic understanding that told me I needed to understand more. I knew that good sleep during the day equals good sleep at night and good sleep at night makes better naps. I knew bad naps equal bad night sleep and bad night sleep makes bad naps. So when we came home from visiting my parents and Carson woke four times in one night, I suspected we had a problem, but thought, still, maybe it’s a fluke. When Carson fell asleep at 7:30 am instead of 9am for a nap, I thought hmm…that’s strange. When he woke a half hour later, I still attributed this to a one time occurrence. When he needed to go down again at 9am it took me 30 minutes to rock him to sleep. He thrashed around like my highschool boyfriend in the mosh pit of a Nirvana concert, until finally, he closed his eyes. I breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the baby monitor and tip toed out of the room. Fifteen minutes later, he’s crying, so I sigh, put on my good attitude, rinse and repeat, this time it takes 25 minutes and then 30 minutes later he wakes again. I rock and rock and rock and then give up. Then I start over when he shows signs of tired again. Anyway, you get the picture. The Monster was here and I put it to bed for naps 12 times in one day, and then I knew, we were in trouble. Big trouble.
Out came the books again and I began to read, and read and read. Andy read and read and then we compared facts. We decided that Carson had sleep deprivation and we came up with a battle plan. We threw out all we had been doing, every routine went out the window and we focused on one thing. Sleep. We didn’t care when, we didn’t care where, or how or for how long. Getting Carson to sleep uninterrupted for at least one hour at a time was our goal. Anything less, according to the books does not help repay the sleep debt. Two hours is prime but one hour of solid sleep was our first goal. So after the second night of waking up way too much, we started our sleep campaign. Day 1 – put down for another nap that didn’t take. So I took the little babe and I put him in my front baby wearin’ baby carrier and I walked. I walked until he fell asleep and then I walked for 1 hour. Not an easy feat with 17 lbs attached to your chest, but nap/battle number one – down.
The naps slowly got easier after that. One by one, naps got longer and more frequent and I remained glued to the video baby monitor watching every stirring with nerves like a french soldier. Seriously, I was like a wide eyed hampster in its cage just staring pleadingly to get out.\, except my freedom was the baby in the 2 inch square of the monitor. By the end of day 2 we’d had a few short naps and one solid 2 and a half hour nap. By Friday, we were in business. We had a total of 5 ½ hours in the nap bank when bed time came and down Carson went, peacefully to sleep. A far cry from the thrashing in my arms he was doing before. It’s a tiny miracle when things like that happen. So we went to bed at 8pm at the same time as he did so we didn’t miss a moment’s sleep. At 3am, we were awaked by a hungry baby. Count them folks – 7 hours of sleep IN A ROW. SEVEN. He ate for exactly 12 minutes and was right back to sleep for another 3 hours which put him awake at 6:15 and hour later than usual. This repeated again on night two. Night 3 is looking promising as we’re already on good nap number two for the day. Hallelujah, we have gotten somewhere. We may not have won the war yet, but its turning in our favor.
I know a lot more than I did before about sleep and we didn’t have to get to the Cry it Out Stage, which we were considering. I know that THE SLEEP is important. It must be respected, if not revered, cherished, have its own shrine, seances and perhaps worthy of facing west and praying 3 times a day. Sorry, nice old neighbor lady, you may not look in on my sleeping baby just once, sorry Great Aunt Mildred, I will not allow you to keep my baby up just a few minutes longer so you can get him to smile. It’s his naptime. Period. Unless you want to deal with him the rest of the day THE SLEEP is more important.
Now I know when my baby is hard to putdown, fussy during the day, hard to feed, won’t accept a bottle or doesn’t smile upon waking, a problem is starting. Now I know to recognize the sleepy signs before its too late. Now I know that babies get tired 1-2 hours after they wake up and must be put down in that window. I now know that when he becomes “upcited”, a combinated of upset and excited, he’s almost past the line of being able to put down and is reaching his second wind, a very bad thing. Now I know to watch for the far off stare, the yawn, the red eyes and the occassional eye rub. Now I know not to answer one more email or answer the phone when I see this. Now I know to pick him up and go immediately to the crib. Now my life is easier. My life is better. Until the next problem.
I thought it all started on our trip north, but now I know it began before that. I knew sleep was important for a baby, but now I respect what I will call THE SLEEP from now on. It deserves all capital letters because when it is disrupted, it rules your life. When it is good, your life as a parent is happy, content and you love your sweet little baby. When people congratulate you on your new baby, you smile and say “thank you” instead of thinking “if you only knew.” You are proud to be a parent when sleep is good. When its not, the monster comes and this is my story of chasing him away.
In order to really respect THE SLEEP I had to understand THE SLEEP. And thankfully, because I went a little bit crazy a couple of weeks ago (see previous post) I had done enough reading to have a basic understanding that told me I needed to understand more. I knew that good sleep during the day equals good sleep at night and good sleep at night makes better naps. I knew bad naps equal bad night sleep and bad night sleep makes bad naps. So when we came home from visiting my parents and Carson woke four times in one night, I suspected we had a problem, but thought, still, maybe it’s a fluke. When Carson fell asleep at 7:30 am instead of 9am for a nap, I thought hmm…that’s strange. When he woke a half hour later, I still attributed this to a one time occurrence. When he needed to go down again at 9am it took me 30 minutes to rock him to sleep. He thrashed around like my highschool boyfriend in the mosh pit of a Nirvana concert, until finally, he closed his eyes. I breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the baby monitor and tip toed out of the room. Fifteen minutes later, he’s crying, so I sigh, put on my good attitude, rinse and repeat, this time it takes 25 minutes and then 30 minutes later he wakes again. I rock and rock and rock and then give up. Then I start over when he shows signs of tired again. Anyway, you get the picture. The Monster was here and I put it to bed for naps 12 times in one day, and then I knew, we were in trouble. Big trouble.
Out came the books again and I began to read, and read and read. Andy read and read and then we compared facts. We decided that Carson had sleep deprivation and we came up with a battle plan. We threw out all we had been doing, every routine went out the window and we focused on one thing. Sleep. We didn’t care when, we didn’t care where, or how or for how long. Getting Carson to sleep uninterrupted for at least one hour at a time was our goal. Anything less, according to the books does not help repay the sleep debt. Two hours is prime but one hour of solid sleep was our first goal. So after the second night of waking up way too much, we started our sleep campaign. Day 1 – put down for another nap that didn’t take. So I took the little babe and I put him in my front baby wearin’ baby carrier and I walked. I walked until he fell asleep and then I walked for 1 hour. Not an easy feat with 17 lbs attached to your chest, but nap/battle number one – down.
The naps slowly got easier after that. One by one, naps got longer and more frequent and I remained glued to the video baby monitor watching every stirring with nerves like a french soldier. Seriously, I was like a wide eyed hampster in its cage just staring pleadingly to get out.\, except my freedom was the baby in the 2 inch square of the monitor. By the end of day 2 we’d had a few short naps and one solid 2 and a half hour nap. By Friday, we were in business. We had a total of 5 ½ hours in the nap bank when bed time came and down Carson went, peacefully to sleep. A far cry from the thrashing in my arms he was doing before. It’s a tiny miracle when things like that happen. So we went to bed at 8pm at the same time as he did so we didn’t miss a moment’s sleep. At 3am, we were awaked by a hungry baby. Count them folks – 7 hours of sleep IN A ROW. SEVEN. He ate for exactly 12 minutes and was right back to sleep for another 3 hours which put him awake at 6:15 and hour later than usual. This repeated again on night two. Night 3 is looking promising as we’re already on good nap number two for the day. Hallelujah, we have gotten somewhere. We may not have won the war yet, but its turning in our favor.
I know a lot more than I did before about sleep and we didn’t have to get to the Cry it Out Stage, which we were considering. I know that THE SLEEP is important. It must be respected, if not revered, cherished, have its own shrine, seances and perhaps worthy of facing west and praying 3 times a day. Sorry, nice old neighbor lady, you may not look in on my sleeping baby just once, sorry Great Aunt Mildred, I will not allow you to keep my baby up just a few minutes longer so you can get him to smile. It’s his naptime. Period. Unless you want to deal with him the rest of the day THE SLEEP is more important.
Now I know when my baby is hard to putdown, fussy during the day, hard to feed, won’t accept a bottle or doesn’t smile upon waking, a problem is starting. Now I know to recognize the sleepy signs before its too late. Now I know that babies get tired 1-2 hours after they wake up and must be put down in that window. I now know that when he becomes “upcited”, a combinated of upset and excited, he’s almost past the line of being able to put down and is reaching his second wind, a very bad thing. Now I know to watch for the far off stare, the yawn, the red eyes and the occassional eye rub. Now I know not to answer one more email or answer the phone when I see this. Now I know to pick him up and go immediately to the crib. Now my life is easier. My life is better. Until the next problem.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Just Because I ACTED Crazy Doesn't Mean I AM Crazy
There were a few days when I was an obsessing, neurotic, control freak of a mother. I worried about everything. I worried if my baby was eating enough, I worried if he was sick, I worried if he hadn’t gone to the bathroom enough. I worried and worried and worried. I was tense. I was crazy. I had become the mother that people love to hate.
I read books, lots and lots of books, I Googled everything, I kept logs of sleep routines. I listened to everyone else. I fell in the Mommy Trap. The comparing of how other mothers do things or what their baby the same age is doing that mine is or isn’t doing. I fell hard and fast.
Andy silently watched and listened to me for three days. After three days he couldn’t take it anymore. He looked at me and said “Look man, Carson wakes once sometimes twice a night, he never fusses, he usually smiles, most people would kill for that. What is the problem?” I looked at him and the light bulb went off, the tension poured from my body. By God, he was right! Carson was normal, it was me who was not.
I don’t know why but for some reason as soon as Carson turned 3 months old, I thought I had to turn on the super parenting skills. The nurses in the hospital, the baby classes we went to all give the advice that you don’t have to worry about this or that until a baby is at least 3 months old. “You should always pick him up when he cries, babies this young can’t manipulate you with tears, you should feed on demand for at least the first 3 months, just listen to your baby, you can’t put a baby on a schedule until their at least 3 months, on and on and on.” So I had it in my head that after 3 months I had to change things. As it turns out all of these things were naturally evolving anyway, I was doing just what I should be doing, I just needed someone to slap me silly and bring me back from Crazy Town. Its good to be back.
I read books, lots and lots of books, I Googled everything, I kept logs of sleep routines. I listened to everyone else. I fell in the Mommy Trap. The comparing of how other mothers do things or what their baby the same age is doing that mine is or isn’t doing. I fell hard and fast.
Andy silently watched and listened to me for three days. After three days he couldn’t take it anymore. He looked at me and said “Look man, Carson wakes once sometimes twice a night, he never fusses, he usually smiles, most people would kill for that. What is the problem?” I looked at him and the light bulb went off, the tension poured from my body. By God, he was right! Carson was normal, it was me who was not.
I don’t know why but for some reason as soon as Carson turned 3 months old, I thought I had to turn on the super parenting skills. The nurses in the hospital, the baby classes we went to all give the advice that you don’t have to worry about this or that until a baby is at least 3 months old. “You should always pick him up when he cries, babies this young can’t manipulate you with tears, you should feed on demand for at least the first 3 months, just listen to your baby, you can’t put a baby on a schedule until their at least 3 months, on and on and on.” So I had it in my head that after 3 months I had to change things. As it turns out all of these things were naturally evolving anyway, I was doing just what I should be doing, I just needed someone to slap me silly and bring me back from Crazy Town. Its good to be back.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Movie of the Month
When I catch up on the blog, I really catch up. Here's a video from our last month.
Kelly, Andy and Carson
Kelly, Andy and Carson
Friday, April 17, 2009
2-3 month pictures
Why does she keep dressing me like animals?Sorry, Carson she did that to your mom too.
The end of a long hike - Torry Pines La Jolla
Kelly and her baby wearin'.
The end of a long hike - Torry Pines La Jolla
Kelly and her baby wearin'. Its a lot harder to hike with a baby than it looks.
Milk Drunk
This Little Piggy Stayed Home
Karl and Vilma Meet Carson. Dual Admiration.
Happy Easter Peter Cottontail
Milk Drunk
This Little Piggy Stayed Home
Karl and Vilma Meet Carson. Dual Admiration.
Happy Easter Peter CottontailOutfit a la Grandma Jill....of course
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