My baby is 1!

From this

To this!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since we've been a family of three! Tommy is: 

• crawling
• climbing
• cruising
• saying ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, uh-oh, ba (ball), cl (clock), k (book)
• can clap
• raises his arms if you say hip hip hooray
• claps to "If you're happy and you know it"
• touches his head and belly if you ask where they are
• puts himself to sleep at nap and bedtime (more on this later)
• waves hi and bye
• gives kisses
• blows kisses
• shakes his head no if he doesn't want something
• has 7 teeth with 3 more pushing through
• pets the cat and the dog
• and so much more!

I love you Thomas Harrison! I can't imagine my life without you!

Sleep Training: Day 2

I was so tempted to skip today but I knew I had to just do it. With Bill being out of town, I've had dinner at my parents' house both last night and tonight. I sang silly songs the whole way home so that Tommy wouldn't fall asleep in the car. It worked but he was super tired by the time we got home, right before his 8:00 bedtime. Last night I pushed bedtime back by 30 minutes as Ferber recommends for the first couple of nights, but figured that Tommy was sleepy enough tonight that I didn't need to. 

I brought him to his room, changed his diaper and gave him his bottle with the lights on, talking to him the whole time to keep him awake. After the bottle we brushed his teeth and went back to his room to read a book. I read a different book tonight than last night and looking back, I wonder if I should have read the same book for consistency's sake thought I doubt it really makes much of a difference.

After the book, I said, "night night Tommy, I love you" and tried to lay him down in his crib. He immediately started crying. 

8:04 Laid him in his crib
8:07 First check
8:12 Second check
8:21 Third check
8:31 Fourth check. After this his crying was sporadic.

8:37 Crying ends completely and I assume he went to sleep after 34 minutes, down from 41 yesterday.

Tonight he seemed to realize that I wasn't going to pick him up. Each time I went in, he grabbed my shirt and tried to pull himself up into my arms. He would snuggle his head into my stomach and try to soothe himself that way. Each time I left, his crying would increase in intensity. What made it especially difficult was that our dog, Hojo, was being a big pain in the butt. He kept pacing outside of Tommy's room, walking from our room to the hallway and back, nails clicking, because he wanted to go outside. When I finally gave in and let him out, he started barking immediately which was annoying since there is a window in Tommy's room that looks out over the backyard. Then Hojo wouldn't come back inside so I had to run outside after him and try to usher him back in the house (which is why there is a 9 minute slot instead of a 7 minute). 

By the time Tommy went to sleep, my nerves were fried. I see it as a good thing that it took Tommy less time to go to sleep tonight although every minute felt like an eternity. Hopefully tomorrow is even shorter.

Oh, naps! I brought Tommy to my parents' house at 10am and he hadn't napped yet. My mom gave him a bottle at 11 and he fell asleep while eating and took a 2 hour nap. He seems to nap really well at my parents' house which might have something to do with the blackout shades they have in the room with their crib. I'm going to invest in some for Tommy's room in our house and see if it helps. He also took a 30 minute nap this afternoon, part in the car and part in the crib.

Alright, let's hope that he sleeps well tonight. Once I got him to sleep, I poured myself a glass a wine. I'm feeling much more relaxed now and am ready for bed. Night!

Update

We made it! Tommy fell asleep on his own last night and slept through until 7:00 this morning! Woohoo! I've decided to hold off on changing his naps just yet. After reading the naps section of Ferber's book I've realized that we really need to make some major changes to the nap schedule. I think that nighttime sleep training plus a big change in naps would be too much right now. I'm going to continue with the nighttime training until I feel like it has become a good routine then I'm going to work on naps. As it stands right now, Tommy takes a 40ish minute nap at 9:00am and another one at 1:00pm. Then I try and keep him up until bedtime at 8:00pm. He used to take another nap at 5:00pm but it has started to interfere with bedtime. I have tried pushing back the morning or afternoon nap a bit but it hasn't really helped. I think I need to really make an effort to push them both back or cut him down to one, solid nap. I haven't decided which to do yet so I'm going to think about it.

PS. I should add that Bill is totally on board with whatever I decide is best. He really doesn't have time to read Ferber's book (along with some attention issues when it comes to reading) so I've been explaining it as I go through it. When it comes to doing any research regarding Tommy, Bill defers to me!

Progressive Waiting Approach

After putting it off for a while I finally decided it was time to do some sleep training. Tommy has really been fighting bedtime lately, especially on the nights that Bill puts him to sleep, and he's been waking up in the middle of the night again. Naps have been really hard and I figured it was time. I waited until this most recent tooth came through so he wouldn't be dealing with teething pain. He's not currently sick and I didn't give him any dairy today at all. Bill is out of town for a guys' weekend so I decided that this is my opportunity to just do it. I downloaded Ferber's book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems and furiously read as much as I could today. That's how I am, I make a decision and I just do it. If I mull it over, I wimp out.

I went to my parents' house for dinner and Tommy dosed off on the way home. I woke him up, played with him for a little while, and brought him into his room at 8:20 instead of his normal 8:00 bedtime (a Ferber recommendation). I fed him his bottle with the lights on and I talked to him and recited nursery rhymes to him to keep him from falling asleep. After the bottle we quick brushed his teeth (something he loves lately) and read a Thomas the Train book that he likes. Then I gave him a big hug and told him that I love him very much and that it was time for him to go to bed. I said, "night night Tommy" which will be our bedtime phrase, turned of the light, and put him in his crib. Of course he started bawling. 

8:37 Put him in his crib and said goodnight.
8:40 First check.
8:45 Second check.
8:52 Third check.
9:04 Fourth check.
9:08 Crying stops and he went to sleep. We don't have a video monitor so I wasn't able to see him but I know he went to sleep sometime after he stopped crying.

A couple of observations: it was really freaking hard to listen to him crying especially because he has really started to say ma-ma this week and he kept yelling it out. What was even harder was when he stopped saying ma-ma and switched to da-da, like he gave up on me and thought Bill could come "save" him. The strange part was when he stopped crying. He slowed some, stopping the gut wrenching screams and moving to more of a moaning cry but still crying with force. Then he just stopped. He must have just dropped with exhaustion.

So now he's sleeping. I'm really hoping that he just sleeps through the night because I really don't want to deal with this in the middle of the night! I really hope it helps. I was supposed to go meet Bill tomorrow with the other girlfriends/wives but part of the reason I'm not going is because I don't want to leave him overnight with my parents again. Last time he freaked out for 2 hours while they tried to put him to bed. I feel like it was definitely time to try something. I just hope it works well.

Another dairy update

So, I'm not really sure how it went! I wrote about how I gave Tommy some mac & cheese for lunch on Tuesday. He did wake up in the middle of the night crying but it didn't take long to rock him back to sleep. Could be a coincidence. I gave him some more mac & cheese last night for dinner. Bill gave him a bottle at 6:45 because he was asking for one then brought him to my softball game. Tommy fell asleep on the way home from the game so Bill didn't give him another bottle before bed. He woke up at 4am crying and crying. He finally asked for a bottle so I gave it to him and he went back to sleep. So, was his waking up related to the dairy or just a coincidence? I have no idea. I'm going to hold off on the dairy today and try again in a couple of days. It could just be his body getting used to a new food rather than an issue too. I'm really not sure. I'd like to know one way or the other by his 12 month appointment on Wednesday so I know what to tell the pediatrician. Oh well, we'll figure it out!

Fingers are crossed

We've been slowing introducing dairy to Tommy's diet. He's been eating bites of my muffins and I've been giving him Eggo waffles which contain a small amount of dairy. So far, so good. Last night I gave him a tiny taste of my frozen yogurt and again, no problems. So I decided to be brave. I gave him Mac & Cheese for lunch! Of course, he LOVED it! So now my fingers are crossed that he doesn't have a bad reaction!

Hi There

Oops. It has been WAY too long since my last post on May 20th. After that was the end of the school year (crazy time) and then it felt like I had too much to catch up on but no big event to write about. So here's a quick update:

• Tommy is now 11 months old.
• At his most recent trip to the doctor he weighed 22lbs 9oz.
• We weaned.
• We switched to soy formula.
• Tommy crawls everywhere and is creeping along furniture.
• Tommy says ba-ba for bottle, uh-oh, and gittit (get it).
• His top front teeth came in and he's currently working on many more coming through.
• He has been eating some foods with milk in them like muffins and waffles! So far so good, fingers crossed!
• We decided on a theme for Tommy's birthday party, Baseball!!!
• Tommy refuses to eat anything off of a spoon when we try to feed him so he's completely on table food. The only way I can get him to eat veggies though, is to spread purees on bread like a sandwich. 

T - 13 days until Tommy turns 1. Where did the past year go???

Tommy's 11 month picture