two cute things that theo did in the past two days:
1) most days it takes a little bribing to get theo moving so we can get to daycare in time so i'm not late for work. lately, i've been letting him hold my keys, which seems to speed him up a bit. yesterday he was holding my keys and i asked if he wanted to open up the car door with it...and then he actually found the right key and put it right up to the key hole!! of course, he needed some help to actually open the door, but i was so surprised that he actually knew which one was the key for the car!
2) this morning as i was putting theo in the car, he noticed a star on one of my keychains. he asked, "moon?" (one of his new favorite words) and i said, "well that looks like a moon but no, it's a star". he repeated it back, "star?" and i said "yes, it's a star". so he looks around for a few seconds and then points to an american flag at a neighbor's house across the street and said "star?"
i'm so proud of my observant little boy!!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
17 months!
All right, it's time to gush.
We started sleep-training last week, and after so many (many!) months of STILL waking up every other hour to nurse and STILL hogging up prime real estate in our bed, I'm very proud to say that Theo has successfully slept in his big boy bed for THREE nights in a row! Here's how we did it:
We started out with Tyler putting him down for bed in our bed (instead of me nursing him down) for 4 nights last week. I still nursed him back to sleep each time he cried for the rest of these nights, but the initial going to bed was what we started out changing. The first night, there was about 1 hour of crying before he fell asleep. The second night, only about 40 minutes. The third night, still about 40 minutes (which was hard because we were expecting to see the same amount of progress as the previous night), but then on the 4th night, it was like a switch turned on and he didn't seem to mind at all! The 4th night was also the first night that Tyler put him to bed in his big boy bed. But since it was a Thursday night and we weren't ready for total sleep deprivation on a work night, he still ended up in our bed by 11 PM that night (so he slept about 3 hours in his own bed that night). I will also say that Tyler's method to get him to sleep included laying down next to him, quietly humming "Elmo's World", and patting his back.
So then on Friday night, we were ready to take the plunge. At the recommendation of our pediatrician, I decided to leave for the whole night so he would know that there would be no possible access to milk all night. I even made sure to say "bye bye" to him when I left, so he knew that I was really gone. It certainly wasn't an easy night, but Tyler managed to get him back down to sleep in his own bed each time he cried (although Theo did walk into our bedroom once in the middle of the night).
On Saturday night, I stayed home but made myself scarce for the initial "night night". By this time, Theo was an old pro at falling asleep with Daddy by his side in his big boy bed, so it took about 30 minutes for him to fall asleep but it was a relatively tear-free event. Then Tyler was on duty for the rest of the night...I'd say Theo still cried enough for him to Tyler to get out of bed about 4-5 times that night, but there were also a handful of times that he merely wimpered a little bit before falling back to sleep on his own.
So then last night = amazing! It took about 30 minutes for Tyler to get him to sleep (no crying involved) and then...get this! Tyler only had to get out of bed ONCE all night!!! Theo still wimpered maybe 2-3 other times, but seemed to fall back to sleep pretty well on his own. This morning I woke up to the sounds of Tyler getting into the shower and then maybe 10 minutes later, I heard little feet quietly pad into our bedroom, holding his stuffed bat (affectionately called "Batty Bat", after the song by The Count on Sesame Street). He was grinning from ear to ear! I seriously didn't expect him to transition so well and I am SO PROUD of my big boy!!! :-D
Oh, and before I forget, Theo has also added a few new tricks to his repertoire: saying "Jojo" for his best friend at daycare (Joseph), saying "bulldozer", learning how to put puzzle pieces in the correct spots on the puzzle, and he has learned to correctly identify the following animal sounds: cow, sheep, horse, dog, monkey, and rooster.
So yep, my fussy baby has pretty much grown up to become the World's Most Pleasant and Perfect Toddler! :-)
We started sleep-training last week, and after so many (many!) months of STILL waking up every other hour to nurse and STILL hogging up prime real estate in our bed, I'm very proud to say that Theo has successfully slept in his big boy bed for THREE nights in a row! Here's how we did it:
We started out with Tyler putting him down for bed in our bed (instead of me nursing him down) for 4 nights last week. I still nursed him back to sleep each time he cried for the rest of these nights, but the initial going to bed was what we started out changing. The first night, there was about 1 hour of crying before he fell asleep. The second night, only about 40 minutes. The third night, still about 40 minutes (which was hard because we were expecting to see the same amount of progress as the previous night), but then on the 4th night, it was like a switch turned on and he didn't seem to mind at all! The 4th night was also the first night that Tyler put him to bed in his big boy bed. But since it was a Thursday night and we weren't ready for total sleep deprivation on a work night, he still ended up in our bed by 11 PM that night (so he slept about 3 hours in his own bed that night). I will also say that Tyler's method to get him to sleep included laying down next to him, quietly humming "Elmo's World", and patting his back.
So then on Friday night, we were ready to take the plunge. At the recommendation of our pediatrician, I decided to leave for the whole night so he would know that there would be no possible access to milk all night. I even made sure to say "bye bye" to him when I left, so he knew that I was really gone. It certainly wasn't an easy night, but Tyler managed to get him back down to sleep in his own bed each time he cried (although Theo did walk into our bedroom once in the middle of the night).
On Saturday night, I stayed home but made myself scarce for the initial "night night". By this time, Theo was an old pro at falling asleep with Daddy by his side in his big boy bed, so it took about 30 minutes for him to fall asleep but it was a relatively tear-free event. Then Tyler was on duty for the rest of the night...I'd say Theo still cried enough for him to Tyler to get out of bed about 4-5 times that night, but there were also a handful of times that he merely wimpered a little bit before falling back to sleep on his own.
So then last night = amazing! It took about 30 minutes for Tyler to get him to sleep (no crying involved) and then...get this! Tyler only had to get out of bed ONCE all night!!! Theo still wimpered maybe 2-3 other times, but seemed to fall back to sleep pretty well on his own. This morning I woke up to the sounds of Tyler getting into the shower and then maybe 10 minutes later, I heard little feet quietly pad into our bedroom, holding his stuffed bat (affectionately called "Batty Bat", after the song by The Count on Sesame Street). He was grinning from ear to ear! I seriously didn't expect him to transition so well and I am SO PROUD of my big boy!!! :-D
Oh, and before I forget, Theo has also added a few new tricks to his repertoire: saying "Jojo" for his best friend at daycare (Joseph), saying "bulldozer", learning how to put puzzle pieces in the correct spots on the puzzle, and he has learned to correctly identify the following animal sounds: cow, sheep, horse, dog, monkey, and rooster.
So yep, my fussy baby has pretty much grown up to become the World's Most Pleasant and Perfect Toddler! :-)
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