Friday, May 30, 2014

On not sleeping and not sharing


Sleeping with the Fishes -- we aren't doing much of it recently.  We have hit the four-month wakefulness stretch.  A little less than two weeks ago, Fish started getting up at least 3-4 times a night to eat.  He was down to a single feeding in the middle of the night and then again early in the morning hours.  Not so much anymore.  At first, I was utterly confused as to why he was getting up so many times again in the night.  Now after remembering that this happened with Finn was around this age and remember the term "four-month wakefulness", it makes sense.


The Princess & The Pea -- my girl has become quite a brat of late.  I didn't know what was causing it.  I wasn't quite sure if this was just a I'm-two-and-this-is-how-two-year-olds-act thing.  But when she was a crank-pot from the instant of getting up, I knew something had to give.  At first, I blamed it on a new routine with me being home all the time.  Then I blamed it on the fact that she doesn't have the social interactions that she was used to at daycare.  Then it was the sugar -- I was going to cut out all her sugar! (which still isn't a terrible idea)  But I have finally realized the solution.  Girlfriend wasn't getting enough sleep.  After doing some research, I was realizing that she was running about two hours shy of the normal range.  After looking at her sleeping patterns and our bedtime/nap routine.  I decided to make some changes.  There has definitely been a significant change in her attitude.  We started implementing strict bedtime/nap TIMES -- she is in bed by a specific time.  Before I would just ask her to lay down, give her the iPad to watch some Barney and let her sleep on her own.  Only problem was that during naptime, she would lay there and watch Barney for up to three hours before falling asleep to nap!!!!  By that point, she was waking up from her nap at 6:00pm and then wouldn't want to go to bed at 8pm.  So arrivederci, dear ole' Barney (at least for nap & bed times).  Huge difference.  In the next two months, we are getting rid of the ole' binkie as well, which is going to prove to be a HUGE fight.


Chatty Cathy -- Just this week, someone has found his voice.  Like SERIOUSLY found his voice.  He will sit there and talk and talk and talk.  Mostly to his mobiles, but sometimes to me.  The dude loves to hear his voice -- LOUDLY. And I'm not talking about crying or screaming -- just a single syllable over and over and over again.  He has never been a big talker, but he now has the gift of gab.


Y'all know an over-sharer? -- Well, it's not Finn.  I'm really trying hard to get her to realize the benefits of sharing.  But I don't know how to break through her little two-year-old psyche.  At first, I thought she was going to be an excellent sharer.  She would hand Brother her lamb (which is her lovey) and she would give Brother a toy or two.  She would ask if Brother wanted some of her snacks.  But then I realized that she only wanted to share what she didn't want.  She was easily giving up something that she didn't want to play with first.  I think that once Fish starts grabbing things on his own, we are up for WWIII.  We are going to more playdates and meeting more kids, but the sharing thing just isn't happening despite my best efforts to explain.


Times are a'changin' -- I feel like in the last week Fish has completely changed.  He was still such a newborn up until a week or so ago.  Now he is a mover and a shaker, a talker, a head-holder-upper, a chunker, a sitter-up (with support), a spit-bubble-blower and a wide-eyed baby that can't stop looking around.  Now he has done all of that stuff here and there before, but now he seems to be doing all of it constantly!  He still sleeps quite a bit, but it seems like he is waking up more frequently during the day and he is becoming a fun baby.  My little squishy newborn is gone, replaced by a big squishy baby boy with big, blue eyes.


Poo happens -- Finn has been sporadically going on the pot for the last month or so.  Earlier this week, I thought we had finally turned the corner.  She requested underoos one morning.  I explained what that meant and we went potty.  I knew that it was going to mean a lot more work for me that day, but I was kind of excited to not have to change her poopy pants.  An hour later, we tried to go potty again.  Success!!!  It was the first time that she had gone potty twice in one day.  And then about 30 minutes later, she requested a diaper.  I tried to persuade her to stay in the underoos, but she insisted.  So the diaper went on.  I realized that it's because she had to poo and is scared to go on the pot.  So we are close to being potty trained, but still feel like we have a long ways to go.



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