Fever Cheeks and Bedtime Battles

Spike, along with 1/2 of the other babies I know across the country, is sick again. He must have gotten it from his Daddy, who has a scratchy throat. It's not horrible (yet)--just a runny nose, a little more whining, and what I have now dubbed "fever cheeks."

As of yesterday, Isaac is officially 9 months old. The past few weeks have been so full of new developments. His sixth tooth is cutting through his pink little gums. He's getting more and more verbal--I've heard a "dada" and a "mama," but his favorite syllable is "naw naw naw." Physically he's taking off too. First came crawling, then the ability to go from hands and knees to sitting up, next was pulling up to a kneel and then to standing, and as of yesterday he can climb the three stairs to our front door. One accomplishment that we're eagerly awaiting is the ability to get down from standing. I've seen him do it, but it's not graceful.

The reason that getting down from standing is such a desirable skill is that no matter how sleepy our little man may be at bedtime or naptime, the first thing he now does when you lay him down in his crib...is stand up.

The first few times it was cute. I'd go in after ten minutes of him talking or whining and find him peeking over the crib railing with a big sweet grin for me. I'd say, "Honey, it's naptime," lay him down and tuck him in.... and then he'd get right back up. So funny. So cute. I'm so over it.

There have been several occasions that Izey and I have done this little dance for an hour. The author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child recommends not going in at all during naptimes to lay your child down. He says you should let him cry until he falls down from exhaustion and finally takes his nap. I'm just not comfortable doing that!

My action plan created this morning is to leave Isaac for longer and longer times until he gets through this phase. Previously I'd go in as soon as I knew he was standing up. The last couple days I waited 10 minutes. Today I'm giving him 15 minutes and in a couple of days I'll go to 20.

Just now I put him down and left his door open the slightest crack so I could peek in at him. Haha, what I should have remembered is that if I can see Baby, Baby can see me. I peeked in and made eye contact with a little man standing way down at the end of the crib where the view through the cracked door is the best. He yelled at me, "Nawnawnaw! Nawnaw!" which, in grown-up, means, "I can see you out there peeking at me! I will never sleep, woman! You can't make me!"

Five minutes later I laid him down and haven't heard a peep since. Momma: one, Baby: zero.