Thursday, January 14, 2010

Separation Anxiety?

So I have been working on getting Ace to sleep through the night again and it has been going pretty well. Except that he has developed a habit of waking up around 5 am. Usually he will go back to sleep with the replacement of his pacifier. Other times, he will scream and not stop. This morning he screamed for a half an hour before we decided to do something. B opted first for Motrin, but I really did not think the baby was in pain. I went in and patted Ace's head and he would quiet down and go to sleep, but if he lifted his head and I was leaving, screamed started again. B finally went in to the nursery and patted Ace for a long time and then just laid down on the floor by the crib. B said that Ace picked his head up a few times and looked at him, laughed, and went back to laying down. When B got up and left, Ace complained but went back to sleep. Ace made up for his hour of wakefulness by sleeping an hour later this morning. I was up for almost an hour and a half while all of this was going on and today I am very tired. I know you are just supposed to let them cry it out, but we can't. My stomach was in complete knots the whole time Ace was not settling down.
With weaning and my going back to work coming up, we've got to get this down.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Post Holiday

We went to the Mid West for the holidays. We landed on Christmas Eve right after the start of the biggest blizzard to hit that part of the country in sixty year - or so we were told. Ace got the experience snow and really, really cold weather for the first time. Since he is still cruising and not walking, not a lot of time was spent out doors, but he got to dress up in adorable hats and sweaters and I got to take some good pictures.
While we were away he stayed on Los Angeles time, which was wonderful. He had two colds in a row, though, starting right before we left, and I caved and started feeding him when he woke up in the night. I couldn't stand hearing his stuffy little cries. I continued feeding him at every night waking while we were not at home, since I felt kind of bad for him. We've been home three nights now and managed not to feed him last night and just let him cry himself back to sleep. It only took about five minutes. Hopefully tonight will be similar.
Ace's first Christmas was ok. I hated being away from our home, but I guess you have to do things you don't want to do when in laws are involved. Ace got great presents from his Nana and Papa, but I was annoyed that no one held back his older cousins, who insisted on "helping" unwrap his presents and then pretty much grabbed the toys away from helpless Ace and started playing with them. These older cousins have had so much fussing over them through the years, I thought it really unfair that their parents and grandparents didn't tell them to leave Ace's things alone and let Ace have his moment. But maybe that's my own personal baggage coming through. B agreed with me, however, so maybe not.
Ace is getting around really fast these days, by creeping (I think that's what they call the army crawl he uses) and cruising, but I don't think he is that close to walking. Others disagree.
He is babbling just a little, less than I'd like him to. I always thought a baby of mine would be an early talker, but I guess not. He understands a lot, though, which is fun to see.
Next up will be weaning and I am trying to learn as much as I can about that now. He isn't great with a sippy cup, but does well with a straw, so I might just skip the sippy cup - I've read it's not very good for their oral development anyway - and transition to a straw cup and then just a regular cup. I'm going to try and change up one of his nursing sessions and give him the breast milk in a straw cup and see how it goes.
New Year's Resolutions are: weigh less, work on some individual projects and get organized. I should probably add find a job, but that one boggles my mind currently, so I'll think about that later.