P.S. Nathaniel can ’sit’ now. This sleep regimen taught him how to stand himself up. But it’s no fun if you can’t sit back down. But I kept saying “sit” as I was sitting him down. And today he was walking around with Sophie and she was perplexed that he was plopping himself down. Apparently he was showing off his new skill. We are all impressed that he actually recognizes the words Sit and Stand…
Just a quick update… Night 1 was good, better than expected. After a 45 minute session of complaining initially, Nathaniel woke up a couple of times, and got back to sleep. He had a nursing partway through, which he’s used to at night, and he went back to sleep in his crib okay after that, then woke up at about 7am. Of course, that day, we had two hour-plus screaming sessions at nap times, so he was pretty tired.
Day 2 was not so good. We have all been sleep-deprived and on edge, so we didn’t feel like dealing with the screaming during the day, so he got walks, not a big deal. At night, I got Nathaniel to sleep by reading to him til he got bored and slept, about 45 minutes again. But then when he woke up partway through, he wouldn’t sleep again as nicely as Night 1. Andrzej and Sophie had to get up very early for an appointment, so we tried to put up with the screaming a little, but caved and brought him into bed with us. He was restless, we didn’t sleep well thereafter, and we got up at 6am.
We’re all exhausted and cranky today, including Nathaniel. I am the one who puts him in there and checks him (occasionally Sophie), but “the Book” says the nursing mother shouldn’t be involved because that would make things harder. I spent over an hour at his first nap-time in the morning, and the only result was screaming. He won’t even lie down. He spends the whole time standing at the edge of the crib, gripping the rails, crying, staring at the partially open door, with saliva and snot all over his face.
He now DETESTS that room and the crib and starts looking pitiful and scared if we even go down that end of the hallway. After that session, we brought him to the kitchen. Normally he tends to crawl all over the place. This time he was still edgy, and he kept bumping into me, a signal he wants me to pick him up. I would, then he would hold on tightly to me and relax a little. Then I’d put him down with his toys, but he would go right back straight to me… This is unusual because usually he will pick Maggie first, Sophie second, Andrzej third, and me last for holding. We think he’s feeling that I’m mad at him, and that’s why I abandon him in the crib. Or that I don’t like him anymore, or something. It’s pretty pitiful.
Tonight should be tough.
Nathaniel is moving into a big crib now… And we’ve been through 2 hour-long crying sessions as we train him to sleep in the crib and ONLY in the crib… How long can we hold out? Check back on the next “Survivor: Baby”. Ouwit, Outlast, Outplay
PS email or IM me if you want to see his webcam. (We use it to keep an eye on him.)
Hot off the presses! I added a few short videos of Nathaniel making sounds from a few minutes ago: Wed, Mar 24, 8pm. He’s been doing it for the last few days now consistently. Videos
Nathaniel had some fish tonight, and it went well! Maggie’s food book said he can have it, so Sophie poached some cod in water. The recipe said you can put in peppercorns but she stayed with just fish. Then after dinner Maggie put it and some carrots and some breast milk into the blender cup and used the hand blender to puree it. It didn’t smell fishy at all. I took on the task of feeding it to him so that I could have a positive face when he ate it, and not get thrown by someone having a yuck-face. He liked it just fine. I’m sure it tasted familiar, since he eats a lot of carrots. We had to stop after a while, to make sure he still gets his vitamins from actual breast milk.
After that he was very energetic, almost hyper. Upstairs, since he wasn’t cooperating with feeding time, we put him on the carpet and he explored, very curious as to what could be under the bed. I crawled around and it almost seemed like he was playing peek-a-boo with me instead of the other way around. Quite happy this evening, even though unruly.
Nathaniel has been keeping us awake at night, waking less than every couple of hours. This has been going on for a couple of months. Some could be teething, which will take another year and a half to get through. But it could be separation anxiety which starts to hit at 9 months.
Here are some more photos of Nathaniel, with his teeth… if you look closely enough.
Nathaniel had his six-month check-up. He’s 26 1/2 inches long, and has almost doubled his birthweight at 16 lbs., so he’s the right size. He’s 30th percentile in weight, which is down from before, but okay by us because we’ve heard the birth charts are skewed toward fat formula-fed babies. One thing we have to check out with an ultrasound is the dimple he has at the base of his spine, right above his heiny. A lot of babies get this and usually it’s fine, but in some babies if it’s too deep an infection can get into the spine. Sounds creepy. But they can fix it pretty easily if they catch it.
Yes, Nathaniel is officially 5 months old today! He is doing well–he’s in a mellow mood today. The latest thing is bananas in a hand-held net-type thing that lets him suck out the good stuff while minimizing the mess. He’s had this on 2 occasions now. We freeze the sliced bananas and he gets to suck on them. He likes it a lot, but we figured out two doses are too many. We have lots of other food items to try next.
A few more Nathaniel photos… Thanks Dad for the ducky outfit!
Nathaniel’s current stats at 4 months and a week:
14 lbs, 13oz (50th percentile)
26 inches (90th percentile!)
So he is long and lean. Apparently in the last 3 weeks he has grown 2 full inches in length, some kind of record. He also had a few shots in his thighs which is going to make him uncomfortable for a day or two. Poor guy. He’s been mellow though–I think he forgot the pain. new pics 11/14/03
