Maybe this way or that way?

I said it before and I'll say it again. Raising a child is like a science project. You can have hypothesis after hypothesis of what's going to be your outcome, but until you actually try your experiment, you'll never know how it's going to end.

I'm sure some of the mothers out there are saying, "What to hell is she talking about!?" I'm a scientific person. This is how I work, so go with me.

Last month, before Gramma and Pop-pop came to visit, Little Man was waking up close to 8am. Which was a dream for me considering I was still in my first trimester and exhausted as ever. I still needed to take a nap when Little Man went down just to be able to make it through the day. When hubby and I returned from our trip to St. Maarten, Little Man seemed to change his mind and think that 6:30-7am was a better time. Whatever.

So, I kept trying to keep him busy, sometimes pushing his naptime out until 1:30-2pm instead of his normal 1-1:30pm timeframe. I made sure to wake him up no later than 3:30pm depending on what time he fell asleep for his nap. Sometimes, he would be so tired, no matter what I did, he'd fall back to sleep in my arms. To at least keep one thing consistent, we made sure to keep his bedtime still the same. At 9pm lights out.

Gramma, not necessarily questioned me, but questioned the idea of maybe he's overtired. I had wondered the same, but wasn't sure how to change his schedule. It wasn't until last week, after chatting with a very good friend who has helped me tremendously with raising my son, that I figured we try pushing his nap time back earlier.

Last weekend regardless of what time Little Man woke for the day and if he was acting tired or not, we put him down for his nap at 1pm. I let him sleep until 3:15-3:30pm, to make sure he was awake long enough for the rest of the day. To our delight, he woke up the next day at 7:30am!

The next day, we did the same thing and he woke up at 7:45am! Monday? He didn't start moving until 8am!

Hopefully, his new wake-up time will stick around for a long time to come.

Apparently, it's time

Yesterday, I talked about how LMA's beloved "Paci's" nipple was lost bitten off during nap time. I contemplated about just going out a buying him another one so MY beloved "Me" time doesn't vanish as well.

Alas, I was informed by both my mother and a wonderful blogging Mom, AmyBow that it was time for LMA to give up the pacifier all together. Amy had given me some wonderful ideas on how to transition LMA through this phase. Like throw him a going away "paci party" - not as great sounding as "potty party", but it sounded like a good idea. Or sending paci to Grandma in California. Or trading Paci in for a new toy.

All these ideas sounded great, but I wasn't ready to do them last night after we came home from dinner out. Besides, he doesn't need paci when he goes to bed at night, so no need to upset him before he goes to bed.

After Gymboree today, I decided to go to Target (also because I had been promising LMA to go to "That Toy Store" all week long to look at new trucks. Like always, we stop by the Dollar Spot to find new and exciting things. Somehow, he always manages to find something that sparks his interest that is buried underneath all sorts of other goodies. This time, it was a wooden school bus that was around during Christmas time. While I finished my shopping, he carried that little school bus around and wouldn't put him down or out of his sight.

When the time came to finally check out, he placed the bus on the conveyer belt and watched the cashier scan it. When he watched it disappear into the bag, he asked for it back. As we were walking out of the store, I remembered Amy's advice about trading Paci in.

A's Mom: That's a nice school bus you found.

A: Uh uh. School bus.

A's Mom: You know who wanted you to have that school bus?

A: (Looks at me with curiosity.)

A's Mom: Paci. Paci wanted you to have that nice school bus.

A: (Looks at me with total shock) Paci? School bus?

A's Mom: Yep. (As I'm trying to choke back tears) Paci wanted you to have the school bus because Paci broke yesterday.

A: Paci broke. School bus.

A's Mom: Yep. Maybe you can hold onto School bus and Jeffrey to keep you company while you take a nap today.

The entire way home. He kept saying, "Paci broke. Mommy fix." "Paci broke. Daddy fix." "Paci school bus."


So it seemed as though the idea possibly worked... until we went down for a nap.


When he asked for Paci lie he always does, I showed him paci again. Paci was in two pieces and the small piece could NOT go in LMA's mouth because he could choke. He proceeded to take the two pieces and try to put them back together. "Paci broke. Baby fix."

I was heart broken. So ready to just run out to CVS to buy him another paci, but instead I said, "Paci can't be fixed, Buddy. LMA can hold Jeffrey and Monkey to go to sleep for nap time." Not remembering that I promised him at the store that he could hold school bus during nap time.

I don't know if it was because I put school bus on his dresser, like we do every other toy that he was holding onto prior to bed time, but he broke down when he couldn't put paci in his mouth. I let him "kiss" his school bus "good-night" so bus could take a nap too. About 5 minutes later, I hear him bonk his head on the crib slats (we still haven't put back his bumper pad from when he was sick last month) and I go in to console him. I ended up just handing him paci to hold onto, since he really couldn't put it in his mouth, and within 2 minutes he was asleep.

So, I'm not sure where to go from here. I was thinking of just letting him hold onto Paci until he gets sick of doing that after a couple of days, but now I'm thinking of sending it to the "Paci fairy" who can use it for another little girl or boy or better yet, a teddy bear to help him sleep during nap time. Not sure either if he really even understands anything I'm saying.

Bed Pocket

For those of you who travel and are paranoid about the cleanliness of hotel beds, there's the "Travel Sleep Sack".





Need I say more??

Great Start.... NOT!

Even though we had a blast for New Years Eve with family, we didn't start the new year off quite right with Little Man A. We think he's teething again, this time his first incisors - at the same time. I really hate giving him Tylenol, especially when I truly don't know if he's in pain or just plain cranky. But it is a relief to see a change in temperament within the hour after I give him the Tylenol... mainly because I know I just helped him and I don't have to feel guilty about possibly dosing my child for no reason.

He's also been waking up in the middle of the night and not going back to sleep on his own. The first night, I went into his room and rubbed his back like I've done in the past, but instead he rolled over and reached his arms up to me. I reluctantly picked him up, because I really don't want to make a habit out of this, but who can resist their child reaching up to you. I was able to sway back and forth with him while rubbing his back for just a minute and then put him down and he went back to sleep. The second night, grandma rescued him and it took a little longer and she ended up giving him his pacifier to get him back to sleep. Thankfully, last night/this morning he didn't wake up, but was awake at 5:45 AM ... mainly because he soaked through his diaper again.

On top of all that, he's been back to his old routine of throwing out his beloved Jeffrey, pacifier, and stuffed giraffe if he doesn't want to take a nap. Yesterday, in disbelieve to every one in the house I'm sure, I let him cry/complain for 45 minutes. It wasn't until my husband came to me and asked, "How much longer are you going to let this go on? I'm pretty sure nap time is over." Well if that wasn't a slap in the face/mood change for me, but I'm sure he didn't mean it that way.

To put more icing on the cake, today he threw over just his pacifier and Jeffrey and paced back and forth in his crib for 45 minutes - wailing. Not crying, but wailing! My mom seems to think it's also because of the amount of people that have been in the house over the past few weeks - too much stimulation, I guess.

Whatever the problem, all I want is my good baby back. I'm starting to think that I'm not too sure about this next year. That maybe all this is a sign from above telling me I should just stop with 1 child (which I'm sure my belly stretch marks will thank me). But like my aunt said, he has to be "bad" once in awhile so I can really appreciate the good times when I have them... and that I do! But all I can think about right now is going upstairs and raiding the cookies/pie/cakes/oatmeal cookie bars that were made over the past week and eating them all. If it wasn't so damn cold and windy outside, I'd sit outside and read and get some fresh air. Instead, I'm going to go scrapbook. This is my new years resolution... not only will I get allot done with his first year scrapbook, I can use it as a stress reducer as well. Hope it works!

Here's a peak at his first two months layouts:




Tootles!