The biggest issue these days is getting him to sleep on his own. He
can go up to 3 hours of crying (starting with one of us checking in at
1 minute, then 3, 5 and 10 minutes of crying until we check in every
10 minutes until he falls asleep) at night. Last night it was only 45
minutes but then he woke up a couple hours later needing to go through
the same process again. It is so exhausting. I know he'd be asleep
right away if he were permitted to sleep next to me or fall asleep
while nursing. The thing is, biologically he should be able to get
through the night without eating or needing to be cuddled when he
wakes up in the middle of the night. Realistically, it can be a
challenge. No two kids are the same I understand, but this same
process was much smoother with his older sister. At one point Calem
would sweat so much while he cries we figured maybe he had something
wrong so we called up his Pediatrician who (jokingly?) told us, "Yeah,
he's a stubborn one, he'll be a tough teenager for sure." (But nothing
biologically wrong apparently). He doesn't sweat any more when he
cries, and he doesn't cry as hard, but he does cry. We read and
re-read Feber's book. There is a part that essentially states: if
it's working for you, you don't have to change it. But spending my
entire evening lying down next to an infant wasn't working any more
(there was laundry to be folded, dishes to be washed, bills to be
reviewed etc).
Someday we're hoping he can sleep through the night (or at least 6
hours in a row--ideally closer to 12 hours) without waking up. Or if
he does wake up, to stir brieflly but fall back asleep on his own,
without intervention (which leads to disruption of our sleep).
Currently he's typically up at 1 AM and 6 AM, goes to sleep around 9
PM (we start the bed routine at 6:30 PM!!) and up by 8:30 AM. The 1
AM we have the energy to "feberize' the 6 AM time I'm way too sleepy
to bother and typically nurse him a couple of minutes and he goes
right back to sleep. He still naps a couple times per day (sometimes
only once but it lasts longer if he didn't sleep in the morning).
Aside from sleep, Calem is doing great. He loves to eat solids
(favorite finger foods are cheerios and yogurt melts) and drink sips
of water from a real cup. He gets upset if he drops a toy he was
playing with and loves to be read to (favorite book is "Peekaboo
Morning" by Rachel Isadora). Bathtime is now more than functional
as he really enjoys playing in the water. He is able to sit on his
without support but isn't crawling or cruising or getting into the
sitting position on his own. He loves banging objects together and
"singing" (makes mama and dada and baba sounds--not sure if he
understands what they mean). His two front teeth are about to come in
any day now so he is often biting on something and doesn't seem to
understand "no biting" (or choses not to obey it) at this point (did I
mention he's still nursing? Ouch!)
His 9 month well child check is coming up next week so we look forward
to hearing his new stats (ie. height and weight) as he definitely is
almost too long for 18 month clothing so we're already buying 24 month
old clothing for him! (Poor little guy is stuck wearing some of
Clara's old pants while is transitioning from one size to another).
Calem had his 9 month well child check, he's growing great! 50th
percentile for weight, 90th percentile for height (The doctor joked
he'll probably be over six feet tall when he's done growing!!)
