Dillierama

Celebrating small successes

After a week of Max rejecting every single nipple and sippy cup that wasn't made of my own personal boob-flesh, I can finally report PROGRESS!

This evening, Max partook of a few sips from an Avent bottle with silicone nipple that was filled with Fruit Punch Pedialyte.

He then decided bottles are for suckers and pushed it away.

BUT STILL! A bottle with a synthetic nipple was allowed passage into his mouth and he actually actively took a few sucks.  I think he was willing to try it because it was a different taste.  I'd been trying different formulas and expressed breastmilk only to be met with furious cries of anger and resentment.  The new taste of the Pedialyte intrigued him, it was different, and clearly wasn't a substitute for the boobs.

So I continue to soldier on with the hope that he will one day drink liquids that don't have to come directly out of my nipples.

As for our sleeping arrangements, that's not going so well.  Up three times last night, but I did refuse to nurse him at 3AM (I did at midnight and 5AM though). I rocked him for 20 min, he was still screaming so I put him in his crib and let him scream for another 20 mintues (the most agonizing 20 minutes of my life I tell you), then I went back and rocked him again and he fell asleep. I'm hoping if I can stop nursing him when he wakes up, he'll just stop waking up and sleep through 'til morning.  Maybe not, but it's worth a try anyway.

 

Identifying the problem

New post at Bodies in Motivation is up:

http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2009/02/identifying-the-problem/

Rejection

Getting Max to take a bottle is going about as well as can be expected. Observe:

Sleeping kid, sick kid

Max went to bed last night, in his room, in his own crib, and slept until 3AM.

3AM I SAY! 

HALLELUJAH!

I nursed him and he went back down at 4AM, in his room, in his own crib, and slept until 6:30.

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

This is progress.  Not only did he sleep in his own bed, which has never happened, but he only got up once!

Sadly, I still wasn't able to get any sleep last night because poor Alex woke up at midnight on fire with a fever of 100 according to the thermometer stuck in his armpit.  I put him in bed with us and then he threw up all over himself.  I made a middle of the night run to the store for some Children's Tylenol, he took it like a champ, asked for some juice to wash it down and slept fitfully in my arms the rest of the night.

In addition to not being able to sleep next to a thrashing bony heater, I was worried that surely Max must be laying there dead in his crib and that's why he's not screaming bloody murder to be rescued, so I made no less than 10 trips in there to put my hand on his chest to make sure he was breathing.  One of those trips was at 3AM and I wonder, had I left him alone, would he have slept right through?

This morning Alex is still warm, but says he feels better, and he hasn't horked since the one time last night.  Max is positively gleeful, all that sleep must have done him some good because he's been full of joy and happness since he woke up.

I'm still running on empty, I probably only got an hour or so of sleep last night (and the night before Max only let me have two hours of sleep all night), but the amazing thing about being a mom is somehow, when your kid needs you, like Alex does today because he's sick, I know I'll be able to be SuperMom despite the exahustion.  I'll crash the second he goes to bed tonight for sure, but my experience tells me that I'll be able to pull from my reserves to get through the day and be the Mommy he needs.

Mama's boy

I am making plans to go with some of my aunts, cousins and grandma to Mexico in April. A real girls trip!  I haven't been on a trip without the kids since I had them and I haven't been on a girls trip, well, ever.  It's the perfect opportunity for me, my aunt has a place right on the beach in Cabo (which she is trying to sell, anyone in the market for a Mexican villa?) and along with all the sleeping through the night I plan on doing, I'm really looking forward to spending some real time with my extended family.  Living in Utah while they live in California, it's hard to really develop bonds with my family.  It's never too late to try to develop closer relationships I say.  And what better way than sipping margaritas on the beach together?

John, though scared out of his mind at the idea of being home alone with both kids for a week, has said he'll help me make the trip happen.  We're pooling our SkyMiles for the flight so the trip is actually going to be quite affordable. John has no desire to go to Mexico, so I don't even have to feel guilty about going on a beach vacation without him. 

The big kink in my plans goes by the name of Max, who, as you know, is a bit of a boobaholic, he's also a big time mama's boy.  The longest I've left his side is three hours, and here I'm making plans to leave him for a week.

I need to make four things happen in order for me to go:

1. Get Max to take a bottle
2. Stockpile a week's worth of expressed boob juice
3. Get Max to fall asleep without my boob in his mouth

4. Get Max to sleep in his own crib (hopefully through the night), he currently co-sleeps with me

I've got 10 weeks or so to make these things happen and I believe it can be done, really, these things should have been taken care of months ago, now I just have the motivation to do it.  I'm hoping this will also make weaning him easier since I plan to do that in June (I'll pump'n'dump on the trip to keep my milk up so I can continue nursing him when I get home).  The way he is now about nursing, I was having visions of him breastfeeding until he goes off to college.  It'll also be nice to have the marital bed back instead of the family bed we currently have. 

Anyone have any advice for me? Alex was so easy, took a bottle fine, slept in his own bed through the night since 8 weeks old...I have no experience with a clingy baby.

Anger management

Recently, Alex has been a tantrumy, whiny, bad tempered child with some major anger management issues.  Several times a day I am having to put him in his room to calm down. 

**Of course, he is only this way with me and John because the very second anyone else is near him the horns recede into his head, the flames erupting from his mouth fizzle out and he's all cuteness and light again. WTF????**

Putting him in his room is the only thing I can think of to do.  When he's stomping around, roaring and spitting, and crying and upending tables, chairs and throwing toys in every direction a) it's dangerous to be around him and b) Anything I say or do just pisses him off even more.  So, I pick him up, screeching like a wounded pterodactyl, plop him in his bed with Blue Blankie and tell him he can come out when he's calmed down.  Sometimes he comes out 30 seconds later, sometimes he stays in there screaming toddler profanities so long he falls asleep.

This technique works pretty well because I think it offers him the opportunity to learn how calm himself without really feeling like he's being punished.  He can come out of his room as soon as he's chilled the eff out.  I don't close the door, and anything goes in there.  Screaming, kicking the wall, throwing his toys...whatever.  If he comes out of his room still in a rage, back he goes.  More often than not, he comes out after about five minutes and tells me "Mommy, I'm calm now".

As for the source of these temper tantrums, I'm still at a loss.  Is it the age?  Half years always seem to be hardest for us.  18 months was awful, 2.5 was misery and 3.5 might very well do us in.  I'm hoping, just like everything else, this too shall pass.

One bad day

New post up at Bodies in Motivation

http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2009/02/one-bad-day/

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