Archive for December, 2007
Rookie Mistake? More like stupidity!
I guess since Natalie is over a year it’s hard to blame my mistakes on being a rookie. I have to admit that what I did last night was just plain stupid.
A bit of background…If you’ve been reading this blog, it’s no secret that sleep has been our biggest challenge with Natalie. Things got really bad when she turned 11 months, and in desperation right before her birthday, I ran out and bought a toddler bed, thinking that somehow that would magically solve our problems. Co-sleeping had been making our lives easier since Natalie was 4 months old, but recently we had had quite a few instances where nursing her back to sleep in the middle of the night wasn’t working. So I figured if we were going to have to get up to either walk or nurse her in the glider, she could sleep in her own bed. Her crib really wasn’t an option because of what a project it is to put her down. With Natalie in a toddler bed, at least I could be sleeping comfortably between night-wakings.
So Natalie took to her “big girl bed” rather well and has been napping in it every day and sleeping in it at start of every night. The first night she slept in it, I swore that if she woke up in the middle of the night, I would put her back to sleep, but I wouldn’t bring her into our bed. I figured that eventually she would learn that she wasn’t coming into our bed and would stop waking up. Good plan, but hard to implement at 2 am when you have to work the next day and all you want is to lie down and go to sleep. So, like I said, she’s been starting out the night in her bed and when she wakes up, I bring her into our bed, nurse her and she’s been going back to sleep fine. Her sleep has gotten a little better (meaning she still wakes up in the middle of the night, but goes back to sleep relatively easily) and overall it’s been good compromise for all of us.
We bought the Ikea “Kritter” bed:
Back to my stupid mistake…last night a miraculous thing happened. Natalie had gone to sleep fine, but woke up an hour or so later. Chris tried to walk her to sleep, which didn’t work. So I nursed her for a while, then she stopped. Instead of getting restless and wiggly, Natalie was calm and relaxed in my arms as I rocked her. She babbled for a while, then drifted off to sleep! She’s only fallen asleep like that once before! My heart sank when she woke up about 10 minutes later and started babbling again (we could hear her on the monitor). I was about to go upstairs when Chris stopped me, reasoning that there was no reason to rush in if she wasn’t crying. I agreed, fully expecting that Natalie’s babbling was going to escalate into crying very quickly. But miracle of miracles, she got back to sleep on her own! We went to bed feeling giddy—like we’d turned a corner and there was hope that Natalie’s sleep would continue to improve.
But I couldn’t let it be.
Always the worry-wort, I was anxious when Natalie slept longer than usual. She’s only had the sniffles a few times in her life, and ironically, she sleeps more deeply and for longer stretches when she’s under the weather. Like she’s too out of it to wake up and nurse. Natalie had had a low-grade fever earlier in the day yesterday, and I feared that her fever would spike again in the night. So instead of relishing in a rare chance to get a few hours sleep without her poking me in the ribs, I laid awake, worrying. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up in a panic a few minutes later.
I decided to go into Natalie’s room and sleep on the floor next to her bed. Once I was in her room, I realized how utterly dumb that was, but in an equally stupid move, I decided to feel her forehead before I left. What on earth was I thinking?!?!?!?!? Of course as soon as I touched her she woke up.
So I carried her into our bedroom and we spent the next 5 hours half-sleeping, tossing and turning, nursing, and playing “climb over Mommy.” I think she woke up every 30 minutes or so. Finally at 7 am she started crying and crawling toward the door. I followed her into her room, where she pointed to the glider. I rocked her for a few minutes until she fell asleep, at which point I put her in her bed, where she slept for the next 2 hours.
Natalie is obviously much smarter than her mother already. And she’s obviously not the only one who has a problem sleeping…
Our big one-year-old!
Natalie is learning new things so quickly now-a-days!
She now knows the word “ball” and likes to point to anything spherical and say “baaaaaaaawllllllll.” She also learned that sheep say “baa baa.” Natalie likes to emphasize the second baa, so when we ask her “what does a sheep say?” she responds, “baa BAAAAAAAA!” Rounding out the “B” words, she calls a bottle “ba ba.” And she learned to say “wa wa” for water.
Natalie is understanding more and more that people have special names. Although she’s known the words “Dada” and “Mama” for a long time, she’s been using them a lot more lately. Natalie has been extra attached to Chris this week and asks for him very assertively, calling “da DAAA, da DAAAAA.” Yesterday while nursing she paused, looked up at me with her big blue eyes and sweetly said “mama” over and over again. Which for me was hand’s down the best thing in the entire world! While celebrating Winter Solstice with her cousin David, Natalie started calling him “Day Day.”
Here’s a picture of Natalie and David on Christmas day, when Natalie was trying to feed him:
She also learned to say “hi” and “bye” (another B word!). She really emphasizes the diphthong at the end of each word, as in “hiEEEEE” and “byEEEEEE.” The coolest thing is that she really understands the concepts of arriving and departing as they relate to the words hi and bye. Last night, for example, Chris, Grandma Susan, Aunt Katy, Natalie and I were all in Natalie’s room trying to decide how to configure new artwork for her walls. Natalie made the milk sign and pointed to the glider. As I sat in the chair and got prepared to nurse her, she looked up at Grandma and Aunt Katy and said “ba byEEEEE, ba BYEEEEE” until they said goodbye and left the room.
Natalie is also learning body parts and identify her nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, feet, toes, and shoes (don’t worry, I do realize that shoes aren’t really a body part).
Here she is pointing to her nose:
Finally, Grandma Susan is teaching Natalie to color, starting by teaching Natalie not to eat crayons. When I picked Natalie up after work last Friday, she showed me drawings Natalie made! Mostly faint lines and dots, but beautiful. She reported that Natalie made the fish noise until Aunt Katy drew a picture of a fish, which made Natalie very excited and proud of her ability to communicate what she wanted.
Of course there are still times when Natalie clearly wants something and we can’t figure out what that something is. But watching her learn new words and concepts is amazing and when she is able to communicate, it’s really wonderful for all of us.
Natalie’s Second Christmas!
Hard to believe that this was Natalie’s second Christmas, huh? Well, last year Natalie was still a little peanut, barely able to see more than a foot away. She slept through all of the festivities, and went through three Christmas outfits!
This year, Natalie enjoyed visiting family and truly participating in parties and celebrations. Between her birthday and the holidays, she is now an expert present-opener.
Natalie playing with her new mini-kitchen from Mom & Dad:
Riding in her new wheels from Nama & Grandpa Smoky:
Looking adorable on Christmas Eve:
Equally cute on Christmas morning:
At Great-Grandma Elliott’s:
Playing her new piano from Grandpa & Cora:
