Watching, waiting…

…for cars to drive by.

Bed time stories

Corban has not been a very good sleeper from the beginning.  Once we were able to finally get him to sleep, it has usually been a struggle to keep him asleep.  His problem now that he’s almost 10 months old is that he doesn’t know how to put himself to sleep. He’s by no means a self-soother.

We have nobody really to blame but ourselves for it.  For one thing, Lori would nurse him to sleep.  And then once he woke up during the night, we would rock him back to sleep.  No wonder he’s so dependant on us.  No wonder he would cry his little heart out if we attempted to put him in the crib awake as “they” say you’re supposed to do.  No wonder he would pop wide awake if he was asleep and you attempted to put him in the crib.  It was getting rough.

So we both started doing research on it.  As most people already know, and we did too, there are basically two camps out there.  There’s the side that says you should teach your baby to sleep on their own.  Let them cry it out a little bit and things will eventually get better.  Then there’s the side that is totally against that.  They say that it’s cruel to do something like that.  They also say that you are supposed to comfort your babies no matter what.  Other mammals sleep with and comfort their young, why shouldn’t we.  We are not completely one way or the other.  I see logic in both sides of it.  Our worry, however, was that if Corban was different and that the cry it out just simply wouldn’t work becauase he was too attached to us.  I was convinced that we would just have to deal with being tired all the time for a while and suck it up.  After all, that’s what being a parent is all about right?  Nobody says that it’s going to be a cake walk.  They don’t call it the hardest job in the world for nothing.

Desperate for something to change, we tried a crying it out session a week or so ago.  It didn’t go well.  He cried and screamed, standing up in his crib for over an hour.  We finally gave in.  It was too heartbreaking and nerve racking.  But the more we read about this Ferber method (that’s what they call the crying it out deal), the more I saw that everyone goes through that.  And…the majority of the people that tried it had success in just a couple to a few days.

We decided to give it another shot.  We planned on trying it this past Saturday.  That night, we did his normal night time routine.  We play with him for about an hour.  Then comes bath time, brushing his teeth, and reading a story.  This time, Lori nursed him a little (not until he went to sleep) and then I read him a story, instead of having the nursing be the last thing before bed.  Once we finished our books, I placed him in his crib, rubbed his back a little, gave him his “blue dog” blanket and told him good night, I love you, etc.  Then I walked out of the room.  Of course, he cried.  We let him cry for 5 minutes.  After that time was up, I went in there, comforted him, rubbed his back, I love you, etc.  Walked out.  The crying started again and we waited 5 more minutes.  We repeated the same thing, but the next time, we let 10 minutes go by.  We did that twice and then increased it to 15.  By the second 15 minute segment, he was tired and then the crying stopped…………..and didn’t start back up again.  We were shocked. Did he really fall asleep?  I waited a little bit (I was the one doing the ferbering that first night) and went in and checked on him.  He was cuddled up with blue dog and he was asleep.  Amazing.  But we didn’t think it would last.

Surprisingly, it did.  He didn’t wake back up until around 4:30am.  We both got up (for support) and I went back into his room and did the comforting gig.  I did the same pattern as we did when we first put him down earlier in the evening.  This time, it took about the same amount of time.  Approximately 50 minutes.  After that, he was out until 7:30am.

Last night was night 2.  This time, it was Lori’s turn.  We figured that this was going to be worse because he is more attached to her (and the boobs) than he is to me.  So she did the bath, brushing teeth, stories, you know the drill.  She layed him in the crib, still awake, and we waited as he began crying.  5 minutes passed and she went in to comfort.  Two minutes into the second 5 minute set, and he was out.  For good!  Didn’t wake back up until 3-something.  We heard him whimper for a little bit and then he was back to sleep.  He woke back up at 5:15am, did the same thing and was out till close to 7:30 again.  Amazing!

Today with his naps, same thing.  She’d place him down, he cry for a few minutes (not screaming, just pathetic crying) and then he’d grab blue dog and crash out.  That worked this morning and again this afternoon.  Hopefully this isn’t just a fluke. But, I think he may be catching on to this. And his personality hasn’t changed at all either.  We were afraid that he was going to hate us.  But he’s been just as cheerful and happy as he’s ever been.  We give him quite a bit of love, so I’m sure that helps out.

So call it ferber, call it luck, call it cry it out, whatever you call it, it worked.  Hopefully.  We’ll see how the next week or so goes.  I’m hoping it works though.  It’ll make it easier to keep a sleep schedule.  And, it’ll help us out if we want to go somewhere at night and have somebody watch him.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, say a prayer, light a candle, do something.  I just hope and pray that this all ends up working out for the better.  I think he’ll be better with more rest and we will too.

Cheap walker and other new things

Corban has started really becoming interested in pushing things around the house.  He can be found pushing a car around the house, a ball, a stuffed animal, a cell phone, and even a greeting card or piece of paper.  It’s hilarious to watch.  Well, recently, he’s started pushing a laundry basket around the house.  The basket seems to have just enough resistance to where it doesn’t get away from him since he doesn’t have full confidence in himself yet to walk on his own.  Click here to see a video of him pushing some of his stuffed animals around in the basket.  He loves doing this!  The only thing is that once he gets started, he doesn’t want to stop!  If he gets it stuck against the wall or a piece of furniture, he’ll start crying.  An animal has definitely been created here.  Who knew that baby toys could be so inexpensive!  Too bad as he gets older, things like that just wont be as cool.  His parents probably won’t be as “cool” then either.  We’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Another new development has been his understanding of the sign for “more”.  We’ve been teaching him a few signs using sign language so that he might be able to communicate with us earlier than he would if we just relied on his speech development.  One of the signs we’ve been using for a long time is the sign for “more”. While we’re feeding him, we’ll occasionally stop  and ask him “Do you want more?” while doing the sign for “more”.  Last week, while Lori was out running errands and I was at home feeding Corban, he finally did the sign.  The actual sign is made by holding the tips of your fingers together with your thumb on each hand.  You then tap both hands together at the tips of your fingers.  That’s the picture for it to the left.  No, that’s not Corban.  He’s not bruised, doesn’t wear blouses (is that what that shirt is?) nor does he wear bracelets! : )

So I was feeding him and then stopped.  I asked him “Corban, do you want more?” and then did the sign for it.  He looked up at me, looked real serious (as he always does) and then tapped one of his hands on top of the other one.  Not a bad start!  We did it again, and again, he did the same thing.  It’s gotten to the point now where he’ll do it some times without being prompted.  But, pretty much every time you ask him now, he’ll do the sign.  That is, if he is still hungry or thirsty.  If he’s not, he won’t do the sign.  How awesome is that?  It was just as exciting as I’m sure it will be when he says his first real word.

I called Lori to tell her, but she didn’t believe me.  Oh ye of little faith!  When we had dinner that night, I asked Corban the question and immediately, he did the sign.  Lori couldn’t believe her eyes!  I told you so!!  We’ve got a quick little learner on our hands.  It’s now time to up the ante and start teaching him more signs.  I can’t wait to see how much he can learn.

Corban has also gotten onto a sharing kick, which is great, being that he’s an only child and not around alot of other people very much.  He loves to share though.  He can have his blanket with him on the floor and randomly, he’ll look up at you adoringly and start to hand you his blanket.  Of course, we thank him every time he does that and tell him now nice that was of him to share.  He’ll also do that with food.  This morning, he didn’t want to eat the scrambled egg yolks that Lori was had on his high chair, so he started grabbing chunks of it and offered it out to Lori.  It was pretty funny.  He kept doing it, until all of it was gone.  What a smart kid!  Penny is another beneficiary of his sharing as well.  She also gets treats fed to her by the little man.  That’s another thing that he really enjoys doing…handing her treats.  He doesn’t always know to hold it in his hand in a way that she can take it from him though.  Some times, he’ll grab it and hold it in the palm of his hand and then offer it out to Penny.  It’s a funny site watching Penny try to pry his hand open to get to it.    I’ll have to see if we can get pictures of his various sharing activities and I’ll post them up here.

What else has he done that’s new?  Oh yeah, he’s starting to dance the baby jig.  You know the one – where a baby awkwardly bounces up on down while they’re standing up.  He gets a kick out of it.  He’ll do it and then look up at us and laugh.  He’ll surely be a lover of music as he grows up, just like his parents.

I think that’s it for this update.  I’ll think about anything else that he’s been doing and post more later.

First Christmas

This Christmas was one of many firsts.  It was the first Christmas for us in our new house.  It was also the first Christmas that we had a live baby.  Therefore, it was Corban’s first Christmas, period.  Well, not exactly.  His first Christmas was technically last Christmas of 2007 (Lori was 7 months pregnant with him at the time), but he didn’t unwrap any gifts, so it doesn’t really count.  This was the first Christmas that we didn’t have to travel somewhere.  Although we would have loved to have spent it with Lori’s mom and stepdad, I have to admit that it was nice not having to worry about packing up and driving somewhere.  We were able to just leisurely enjoy the holiday at home without thinking about when we had to leave.

Not counted as a first, Corban was sick on Christmas day.  It was his first Christmas to be sick, but his second holiday to be ill.  The only other time that he has been sick was on Thanksgiving day.  However, he had a fever over Thanksgiving.  At least this time, he was only feeling under the weather.  Snotty and coughing, but no fever.  That’s a good thing.

We were excited about Corban getting his big gift this year.  We got him a Radio Flyer Rock and Bounce Pony.  We ordered it from Amazon and it came in the original box (not in an Amazon box).   We had it sitting under the tree for a while without wrapping it.  Corban didn’t know any better.  He loved to go up to the box and kiss the kids on it.  That’s one of his things that he does now.  He loves giving kisses.  So, we finally got it wrapped and couldn’t wait for him to open it up.  We just knew that he was going to be excited about it.  Not only does he love to rip paper, but he loves to bounce up and down in his Jumparoo,  so it made sense that he would love the pony.

Not so.  When it came time to rip open the pony, it was definitely an anti-climatic affair.  We had the video camera set up, and the Nikon ready to snap picture of an eccstatic baby ripping through his big gift.  Well, he showed pretty much no enthusiasm.  He did a good job opening it up though.  But once he got done opening all his gifts, he looked like he was ready for a nap, so we put him back in bed and opened our gifts to each other.   From us, Corban got the pony, a Leap Frog elephant that sings songs, a monkey, a book and calendar (both from National Geographic).  From Lori’s dad and stepmom, he got some books, a Baby Einstein DVD and some money to put in his savings account.

While he was napping, we put the pony together so that we could have it ready for him to ride once he woke up.  We saddled up his new monkey and waited for Corban’s nap to be over.  We brought him out and tried to get him excited about his pony.  Poor guy had a stuffed up nose and just kinda looked at the pony, then back at us – all the while, his tongue was hanging out of his open mouth so that he could breathe easier.  (Yes, concerned parents, we did try using the booger sucker to clear him up.  It didn’t help much.)

At least once we got him in the saddle, he did show a little more excitement.  We tried to coax him to jump up and down by saying “boingey boingey boingy!” (which is what we say anytime that he jumps up and down.  He wasn’t doing much though.  But it did look like he was enjoying it.  He still has yet to voluntarily go up to it and try to get on it.  About all he has done with it recently is push it around the living room.  He’ll eventually learn though.  I’m sure before we know it, we won’t be able to get him off of it.  I’ll be fine with that.  At least it’s not the one that makes noise or music.  For his birthday, we’ll have to get him a little cowboy hat and some boots to go with it.

Later on that day, we headed over to Aunt Roni’s house.  Her family was there and they showered Corban with gifts.  Again, he didn’t feel good, but we made the best of it.  He made out pretty good – with clothes, a new teddy bear, a couple noisy toys, a dog puppet, an octopus that speaks 3 languages, and a new “smart” potty for when potty training time comes around.  This new potty will play music and dispense stickers that he can put on a chart once he flushes.  They didn’t have that when I was a kid!  Judging by all the gifts he got from Aunt Roni, Aunt Dora, Grandma Marti, Uncle Art, Aunt Erin and Aunt Kandi, he’s a very loved kid, without a doubt!

All in all, it was a good Christmas.  He still has Christmas coming from his Mimi and Papa (Lori’s mom and stepdad) and GiGi (his great grandma).  They are most likely going to be coming in town for New Years.  He’ll be excited to see them!  I’ll post more pictures then.  Until then, I leave you with some more Christmas  pictures.  You can click on any of them to see them full size.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Corban was sporting the new outfit Aunt Roni got for him.  He was the most stylin’ person at the party!  Watch out ladies, he’s gonna be a heart breaker!

Thankful

I may complain, but I am thankful that I have to get up with Corban 3 or 4 times a night. Because, doing this means that I have a live baby to hold and love.

Be thankful for those that you can hold and love. You never know how long you will have them.

I love you, Eric. You are a wonderful husband and father and I’m so thankful that I am experiencing life with you!

It runs in the family

Before we decided that it was time to cut Corban’s wild hair, it had gotten to a point where it was pretty long.  He was our little hippy child.  It wasn’t until we saw these pictures side by side that we noticed a trait that both Corban and Penny had. 

Is it just me or do these two pictures look strikingly similar?  Even down to the grin on their faces. 

Click on the picture to see a bigger version of it.  Check out that side swoop of hair on the right side of each of them!

Up to no good

Here’s a picture of Corban, up to no good.  He’s learned how to open the doors on our entertainment center.  And no, we have not secured the doors with those little latches yet.  We have a pack of them sitting in the kitchen, I just haven’t got around to installing them yet.