The Sweetest Thing...

Bath time was complete, jammies were on, and 8 p.m. had just rolled around – Isaac knew it was time for bed. His tiny hand reached for mine – holding it tight as he led the way to the rocking chair in his room.

“Are you ready for bed?” I asked, as he shook his head yes. “Then let’s go tell papa good night.” How precious to see him rush out to the living room, mouth wide open (he’s still learning the proper way to kiss) to plant a sloppy one on his daddy. No time for hugs, he was ready for nighty-night, aka some booby.

We’ve decided 18 months is it, so in three months, he will officially be cut off. BUT, until then I’m going to relish every night I have left to gaze down at my beautiful son knowing I’m providing him a level of comfort only mommy can.

I’m so far behind with my blog and sharing all of Isaac’s milestones this past year, that I now have enough content in my head to write a novel (which I WILL accomplish eventually – it’s at the top of my bucket list!). Corporate Mommyhood is BUSYhood, which is my best excuse for letting almost 4 months lapse since my last substantive entry.

Isaac is (literally) on the run now – from sun up, to sun down; the bottle’s been gone for almost a month; and he’s sleeping close to 10 hours each night. The sound of Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa is music to our ears and being able to witness his amazing mind hard at work is priceless. Life is good and God is great!

I wouldn’t go as far as saying things are easy, but they are certainly reaching a point that we are beginning to ask ourselves, “could we be ready for number 2?” Only God and time will tell...

Sleep...precious sleep!

Last night was a little rough. Maybe because sleep came in waves of three hours – not something we’ve had to deal with in a very long time. Other than a few bouts of fussiness early on, which was caused by a tummy so bloated you could bounce a coin off it; thanks to a mom who decided to grub down on broccoli, garlic, and I’m sure a few other choices found on the “not recommended for breastfeeding moms’ menu,” Isaac has overall been a pretty good sleeper. We did our best to maintain the Eat – Play – Sleep philosophy (thanks to Baby Wise), so when we started down the path of official “sleep training” at four months, we were pretty confident getting him to sleep through the night wasn’t going to be too much trouble – that is until baby tooth #1 decided to make an appearance.

It’s lovely how the timing of teething conveniently started as I went back to work. I guess the one positive is that I could stop feeling guilty for thinking his sleeping patterns were changing because he was upset with me going back to work. The change in his sleeping habits clearly stemmed from the poor guy learning to cope with a sharp piece of calcium trying to penetrate his soft baby gums.

To help ease his discomfort, we adopted the trifecta method (as Mark’s buddy from work calls it): .4 ml baby Tylenol, (2) dissolving Hylands teething tablets, and a chilled Orajel gum massage. This has been helping – a lot, but last night was no match for even the trifecta. The booby was the only thing soothing this little man, that is until Dad came to the rescue at 5:00 o’clock this morning with “The Hold” – baby facing outward, Dad’s huge right paw under his belly and left paw wrapped around his arms; the result – a snuggled baby who feels secure and safe. Thankfully, the combination of the hold and a little rocking did the trick and I was able to sneak in an extra hour of sleep. Hooray!

Our plan for tonight is this: make sure Isaac gets a FULL meal before bedtime (no sleeping on the job!); followed by a good night diaper change and a solid burp session; then comes the trifecta therapy; and finally it’s time to put him down to bed. He’ll probably squirm a little and might even fuss for a few minutes, but it will pay off in the end – so we hope. Now, if we see a trend from last night and 1 a.m. rolls around and Isaac decides to double as my erroneously set alarm clock, instead of taking the lazy, I’m half asleep route, so I’ll just give him my boob, I’ll roll over and remind his Dad what he said this morning, “I’ll rock him back to sleep.” Now it’s documented, Mark agreed to take the lead in rocking him back to sleep.

We’ll see how this goes. Tomorrow’s entry may turn into a column seeking advice, because we caved and resorted to half asleep boob therapy because the hold and rock didn’t do the trick. Let’s hope for the best and a restful night sleep!