Naptime 'round here

And so goes the saga of naptime woes. 

I've been fighting back against my nap resistant two year old since the end of November. The little guy who at one time was cool with a couple of songs and a goodnight kiss has been screaming, crying, kicking and trying to negotiate a way out of naps for four whole months now. 

I refuse to give in. He's two. Two year olds need naps. 

Admittedly, I have reached the point where I don't expect him to sleep anymore. I have tried letting him "sleep" in our bed the past week and although he no longer screams bloody murder at the mention of "resting time", I'm convinced he will make the Olympic team for trampolining in 2028 if the tricks he pulls on our bed during naptime are any indication. 

If he is caught trampolining (which is every single day), he's moved back into his crib and given a book and a stuffed toy to cuddle with. I tell him he needs to lie quietly with his buddy and help the stuffed animal fall asleep. This has been successful twice in the last three weeks. That's a terrible average. 

And now what do I do now that I'm really desperate?

Once naptime fails  (we're usually at least 90 minutes into the battle at this point ), I've been loading the kids in the stroller for a walk. I face his seat towards me and underneath his sister so all he can see is pavement passing and hear my flip flops flipping. 

And this my friends has been a home run for us seven days in a row. 

I hate that he's not an easy napper anymore, but on the bright side, I'm getting some exercise and sunshine while he sleeps. I can already picture summer time. Over one hundred degrees with equal humidity--sweating buckets in an attempt to get my handsome little man to catch a few zzzz's. 

What have I gotten myself into? 

TEN months

Wow, I have fallen behind on my regular posts because I have been diligent about getting my thirty days of thankful posts up each day. I never thought that posting each day would be so stressful ( I kid, I kid).

sit still? haha. yeah right, mama.

But something worth blogging happened this past week.

Sal turned TEN months old.

If there has been any one month that I've seen the most dramatic change in both growth and development, it's been these last four weeks. Four weeks ago, we returned from our trip to the states with a little 18 pounder who was just learning how to stand holding onto somthing for dear life. He could pull to a stand, freeze, and trust-fall with no one to catch him. And now, I sit on the sofa, marvelling as my 20 pound son re-arranges furniture ( namely, kitchen chairs) around the house. Slick tile and hardwood floors make for awesome chair sliding. Who needs a walker when you've got chairs?


Movin' chairs

Not this guy.

He pulls himself up, and maneuvers with ease. He can bend over and pick something up with one hand. He has a better awareness of his surroundings, and falls much less than he did just last week.

It's amazing. It really is.

He also got his first haircut, by yours truly, and although I was afraid I'd hack it, it didn't turn out half bad. We also started brushing his teeth since he now has eight teeth, with two more on the way. This kid seems to get his teeth in fours. Cah-razy.

Along with the cutting of teeth, we've also been victims of sleep disturbances over the past few weeks. At first I blamed jetlag, then I blamed teeth, and now, well---I'm not sure what it is. He is waking without fail,every night at 10:00p and sometimes again around 2:00a. We let him cry it out, and he goes  back to sleep 75% of the time, the other 25% it escalates, so we get up and change his diaper, feed him and put him back to bed.

He had a visit with our pediatrician here this past week, and he has grown 5 cm (1.5 inches) and gained just under 1 kilo ( 2 lbs) in 5 weeks time. Perhaps all this growing is contributing to the nightly wake up? Who knows, but that's a whole heck of a lot of growing to do in such a short period of time. It's been his biggest spurt yet.

Sal is an eater. His favorite foods this month have been spaghetti with dad's sauce, blueberries, fresh pumpkin and mama's homemade goldfish crackers. He'll try anything once. Sometimes even twice. The only food he continues to refuse are peas. I find it funny, because he will eat things like capsicum and kidney beans, but not sweet peas. He has also decided that breastfeeding-is-so-last-month and has weened himself off on his own accord. I finally gave up trying to force the issue, and grumble, grumble my way into the kitchen to scoop out the formula. It was a good run while it lasted. To be honest, I never thought I would last as long as I have and am totally okay with being done.

The toy of the month.

As far as playtime, this month has been so fun. It's so rewarding to watch him grow up into this little man. We spend a lot of time with other children, generally a year older than his age, and he does his best to keep up with them. He's quite observant and there are times it looks as if he wants to say, "Hey guys, throw the ball to me!". I want to tell him, "It's just a matter of time, bubba..You'll be off running with the boys, having the time of your life." He has a fondness for anything with wheels, so I treated him to a few little construction trucks that he has spent hours rolling around on the floor, sofa, and his dad.

We love you Salvatore!

Am I missing something?

Okay, a disclaimer...we've been spoiled with our son's overnight sleep habits from early on. I've got a few friends, they know who they are, whose children have an aptitude for late night shenanigans and WILL. NOT.SLEEP. So, I really don't intend to complain here, but rather give a little hindsight on how I just about missed a major  milestone!

What? You mean to tell me you actually need sleep, mama?

The past two weeks have left me pulling out my hair, wondering what I am doing wrong to cause my once "goes down at 7 and wakes at 4 and back to bed till 6" child to adopt the "fights going down at 7upat8upat9upat11upat1upat2willnotgobacktosleep unless mama is holding me" schedule. It's exhausting. It's sad. It was making me feel like I was going to lose my mind. Babies need sleep. Moms and dads need sleep.

So, then I thought I figured it out. It must be one of the solids he's been eating. Surely, it's gas. Eliminated that particular solid from his diet, and still....up up up all night long.

Then I blamed teething. But, a quick look in the mouth, and nothing. Nada. Zilch.

One day, he felt warm. Took his temperature. 101 f.

OH MY GAWD what a bad parent I have been! He's got a fever! That's why he isn't sleeping. Oh me, oh my, it's all my fault. How did I miss this?

I did give him Motrin, and monitored his fever. Up and down between 99 and 101 for a few days straight.

Okay, my baby is sick. But he acts fine during the days. Happy actually.

I had a pediatrician appointment scheduled for the 26th, and it was the 23rd. I could wait 3 days. Other than the fever and night waking, he seemed in normal spirits.

And then, on the 24th, as we were playing a game of pat-a-cake which is like oh so fun and evokes a ton of giggles, I saw it.

A tooth!

Yes, Sal cut his first chomper.

Hence the fever and the night wakings.

What a stud.

He took a trip to the pediatrician yesterday, and he got weighed in kilos, and measured in centimeters. It was all Greek to me until I pulled out my iconvert app and punched in the numbers. 15 lbs, 14 oz and just shy of 27" tall at six months. That's a 2 lb and 2 inch gain in 2 months. Not too bad! Since he has had a fever, we will be going back for immunizations some time in the next couple of weeks, once it subsides. The ped seems to think he may have a virus in addition to the teething, hence the prolonged low grade fever. Nothing serious, and it should run it's course. No sense overloading him, even if he is a stud.