life with a new baby
Posts tagged sleep
More and more like a big kid
Jan 19th
Nathan is such a big boy. He’s big enough to get out of bed multiple times a night, sneak around his room, and quietly play with his toys. He’s big enough to try to scramble back into bed when he hears Paul or I coming. He’s big enough to apologize for his actions and promise to stay in bed for the rest of the night. He’s big enough to retract his promise and sneak out of bed again. So, he’s big enough to go without his beloved Blue’s Clues and Wonder Pets for the day.
That’s right, Nathan is grounded from TV today for not minding.
He totally gets it, too. After breakfast, we normally let him watch an episode of Blue’s Clues, but not today. He asked for Blue, but I reminded him that he doesn’t get to watch any of his shows today due to continuously getting out of bed last night. “Okay, Mommy,” he said quietly without resisting. He knows what he did. He knows he’s supposed to stay in bed at night. And he understands that he now has to deal with the consequences. I know he doesn’t like it, but at least he’s accepting it.
In other news, Nathan and I still have that cough. Mine is getting a little better, but Nathan’s is still junky-sounding and deep. But on the bright side, I successfully taught him to cover his mouth with his elbow when he coughs. And he does! He’s pretty good at remembering to do it, even when he’s in the process of running or playing with his toys.
He’s losing his baby-ness and is becoming more and more like a little boy.
In fact, Paul’s mom told me about the last time Nathan was over at their house, he picked his nose, opened up a drawer, and promptly flung his booger into it. Can you believe that? That’s not something babies do, that’s for sure.
I have so many more similar antics to look forward to, don’t I?
Rise and shine!
Nov 11th
Nathan is more of a morning person, very much like his daddy. Paul practically jumps out of bed in the mornings, jumping for joy and whistling. Yes, you read that correctly. He whistles in the morning. I, on the other hand, have to will myself to sit up and slowly crawl out of bed. I’ve never been much of a morning person. Instead, I am a night owl. I love to stay up really super late and then sleep in. But with a kid, of course, that is out of the question. Not gonna happen. So I go to bed early enough to get just enough sleep to satiate my body’s desire for rest, but invariably not quite enough to keep me from being a bit grumpy for the first little while.
Nathan’s mood varies in the mornings. Most times he wakes up all jolly and full of rainbows and lolly pops. Other times, he wakes up grumpy and irritable. Full of “piss and vinegar” as the saying goes. He’s hard to deal with on those days, and it usually takes quite a bit of playing and bribing with books to get him into a better mood. In the picture above, he’d had a great morning. (Fortunately he has those more often than not.) Look at his morning hair! I was sitting on the ground when I took it, so the picture looks like he’s a giant in a tiny little room.
And see the mess behind him? Well, every night before he goes to bed, we clean up his room. And the first thing he does in the morning is drag his toys back out to play. I’ve really been working with him on cleaning up after himself. He and I always clean his room before he goes down for his nap. I set out some baskets, and we sort the toys. Legos here, cars there, blocks in that one, books in this one. Most of the time, he gets distracted and wants to play with the toys we are cleaning up, but I tell him we clean up first and THEN he can play with his toys again. This seems to work well. Just yesterday, he brought a basket filled with over 50 Hot Wheels and dumped most of them onto the coffee table. He played with them for a while, and when he was done –get this– he put them all back into the basket and carried it to his room!
Good work, son.
I know I say this a lot, but I have to say it again. I can’t believe how quickly he’s growing up.
Naps… soon to be a thing of the past
Nov 8th
Nathan is slowly moving away from taking naps. As of now, he still naps when he’s really tired, but it’s getting more difficult to get him to fall asleep. I’ve been co-sleeping with him (during nap times only) since he was 11 months old. At first, I welcomed the rest and the naps. Here lately, probably because I have more energy from losing weight and being more active, I don’t nap with Nathan all that much. I’ll usually lay down with him until he falls asleep, and then I get up.
Every so often, however, I really look forward to a nap. (How lucky am I that I still have the opportunity to nap? VERY.)
Today I wanted to get some rest. Nathan’s agenda for today, on the other hand, did not include sleeping. I laid with him for over an hour as he played with his hands and the blanket. When I finally told him to go to sleep or I would put him in his own bed, he pouted and pulled the covers up over his face. I laid there and watched him for over five minutes. He laid perfectly still, and the only reason I knew he was not asleep was because his breathing wasn’t deep and regular.
Pretending to be asleep for over five minutes is an ETERNITY in toddler time. I had to give him credit. He tried damn hard to make me think he was asleep. He didn’t twitch, didn’t talk, and he didn’t move at all. He was perfectly still.
I know adults that aren’t capable of pulling that off.
So finally, as I watched him, he slowly reached his hand up to the blanket that he had pulled over his face. His fingers carefully grasped the edge of the blanket and ever so slowly, he pulled the blanket down, exposing his wide-awake eyes.
“HI MOMMY!” he exclaimed when he saw me watching him. There was not one ounce of sleepiness in his voice.
“Go to sleep,” I responded. “Mommy’s tired but I can’t sleep unless you sleep.”
“No nap, Mommy. I sorry. Mommy TIRED. No nap. Get up?” he said as he sat up in one swift motion.
“No not yet,” I said as I pondered how it could be humanly possible for someone to sit up with such speed. “Seriously, I’m tired.” Then he plopped back down beside me and nestled his arm under my chin. I couldn’t help but kiss it.
“Get up? Ready get up?” he implored.
Fine. How could I say no? The kid laid as still as a statue for OVER FIVE MINUTES.
“Okay we’ll get up,” I sighed. Before I could finish that short sentence, however, Nathan was clamoring out of the bed and racing into his room. “BUT!” I called. “Since you didn’t nap, you’re going to have to play in your room for a while rather than roaming the house. Understand?”
“Okay, Mommy!” he said as he dove into his toys.
My baby boy is growing up and naps are starting to become more scarce. I don’t think he’s going to give them up entirely just yet because there have been plenty of times where he’s been so tired that he could hardly hold his eyes open. But it’s definitely heading in that direction. Hopefully, he still has a year or two of napping, even if it is sporadic. I can get so much done when he’s sleeping… not to mention, some time to myself is always nice.
Just another reminder that they don’t stay little for long…
I hate sickness
Sep 22nd
Wow, this has been such a long, stressful week. Nathan got really, really sick on Monday with a high fever that stayed between 104 and 105.3 degrees. I took him to the doctor who said he had a nasty virus and a respiratory infection. He tested negative for strep and the flu. I had never seen my poor baby so sick before… he even fell asleep in my arms at the doctor’s office, which is highly unusual for him. He had no energy and was simply miserable and nothing like his normal, happy little self. Neither Paul or I got any sleep this week because we were so worried about him, so we were constantly checking on him, monitoring his temperature, heart rate, respirations, etc. Nathan was waking up every hour or so during the night, screaming in pain. During the day, all he could do was lay on the couch and cry, barely able to move because he was hurting so bad.
Today there is some improvement, thankfully. His fever is finally gone, but he’s definitely still sick and VERY irritable. But he is eating a little more and is finally drinking fluid on his own. (Before this, he was refusing to drink anything, and I was having to administer Pedialyte in a medicine dropper to him to prevent dehydration.)
I’m hoping that he will be better in a couple of days. In the meantime, bear with me because it’s been incredibly hard to post anything with him being so sick.
Recent Comments
Aww thanks, Tina, it was good to see you too! I wish I could have talked to you more... I ...
I'm sorry you all had a rough go yesterday, but it was good to see you both :) I have ...
Thank you, I appreciate that. It's so cool to hear people say that we look alike... I've been told there ...
Awww... what really nice photos! You two look so alike, especially with the way you smile.