Joshua...at 14 months you:
-say mom, dada, milk, bath, balloon (ba-oon), dog, duck, quack, bear, roar, door, bye-bye, hi, yogurt (o-got), more, bubba (for Jacob), car
-walk backwards and sideways
-turn in circles
-dance
-run
-do motions for itsy bitsy spider
-run to the bath when it's bath time
-"read" books to yourself and do a great job turning the pages
-throw some amazing fits when you don't get your way
-love to look out the window in the kitchen and to walk to the door and say "door" and ask to go outside
-run to the kitchen when you are asked if you want something to drink or if you want a snack
-love to eat applesauce, yogurt, any kind of bread, goldfish, apple jacks, cheerios, chicken, french fries. refuse to eat veggies, but we are starting to sneak them in
-love to drink milk, but love your cup of "juice water" like we call it - half juice and half water in his cup. you drink the entire thing at once and then ask for more and refuse to drink the water we give you afterwards
-love Gymboree, but usually like to do your own thing.
-enjoy being by yourself with toys, and often go to a different room so you can have things all to yourself
-at the same time, you do love to share with other babies. i think you think you are older than them, and you think you are being like Jacob and taking care of the "babies" even when they are older than you
-smile at everyone and are very happy when you see new people and do new things
-ride well in the cart without throwing fits and are very patient when we get stuck in a long line
-can point to your nose, eyes and belly
-love cars, trains and animals
-wait until your brother is out of the room and then take his new toys
Friday, February 24, 2012
Joshua's sleep
I haven't blogged in forever, but wanted to make sure I wrote down our struggles and triumphs with Joshua's sleep before I forget them. Sometimes it's nice to look back and see how you fixed something that was SO difficult!
Joshua was a good sleeper when he was a baby. Took amazing naps in his crib and started sleeping through the night at like 6 or 7 weeks old. We didn't feed him a bottle during the night since then. He would sleep sometimes in his swing for some naps while Jacob and I played outside, taking the monitor with us in the backyard. Jacob was able to still get some great mommy time, and Joshua loved his swing for a while.
And then, Joshua became colicky, and screamed bloody murder from 4 to 11 p.m. every single night for 6 weeks. It was terrible. And, turned into us doing practically anything to not hear screaming. Since Bob was only home 2 nights a week, it was me who heard this non-stop screaming (well, and Jacob, who bless his heart didn't complain about it once). And, when Bob was home, he didn't want to hear screaming any other time of day either. So, naps started to turn into us holding him so he could get his sleep. Bob was home for the summer after that, too, and we had two sets of hands and two kids, so Joshua was held for almost every single nap. At the time, he was still sleeping great at night, so we didn't worry about it too much.
But, Joshua decided sleep is for losers, and started waking up all the time during the night and refusing to let us put him down. And, around 12.5 or 13 months old, Joshua decided it would be a great idea to NEVER let us put him down no matter how tired or how asleep he was. We couldn't put him down for a nap or to sleep. We were still rocking him to sleep, and decided we would just refuse to hold him anymore and eventually he would be tired enough to let us put him down. This worked for about two weeks until he decided that regardless of how long you rocked him, he would stay awake so you wouldn't put him down ever. The final straw for me was rocking him for two hours and he refused to even fall asleep.
So, as a last resort, we decided to let Joshua cry it out. Never say never, right?! I could have bet money that I would never let my kids cry it out. But, Joshua is stubborn, and we tried everything else to get him to sleep without crying. But, he was getting so tired during the day that he started tripping on things and getting hurt and not even wanting to play anymore. It just wasn't doing him any good watching him desperately need sleep and not knowing how to get any rest.
The first night was this past Friday night. He screamed for 37 minutes and then fell asleep. The next night we had my in-laws in town, and Bob decided to hold Joshua for his nap that day, so it set us back a little bit. But, since then, we have been very consistent and gotten Joshua to sleep on his own every single time. Naps were definitely not happening this week unless we were in the car because he was still trying to figure out how to soothe himself. But, today he took a decent nap (wasn't happy about it, but he took one), and only cried for 4 or 5 minutes tonight before falling asleep.
I know we aren't out of the woods yet, and we have a lot of work ahead to make sure Joshua stays on track with his sleep and we don't give in and let him fall asleep on us. He seems happier when he wakes up, and it's only been a few nights. The longest he ever cried was for an hour, and that was only once. Everything else has been 30 minutes and less. I'm glad he is learning to soothe himself. I'm glad we are able to spend some more alone time with Jacob now that we are able to put Joshua to sleep and let Jacob stay up longer if he wants to.
We have used the noise machine for Joshua every night, and the projector every night except tonight. I leave the noise on rain because it's the only noise that doesn't drive me crazy. I'm sure he would sleep fine without the noise, but with it only being a week into this, I don't want to ruin a good thing!
I'm proud of our little guy for soothing himself, and happy that even though I hate hearing him cry and feel bad for his little scratchy voice, I love knowing that he desperately needed to start getting better sleep and he is now getting rest and sleeping well. He really needed the sleep!
One other thing I don't want to forget is that over the past few months his hair has REALLY lightened up. When he is screaming and I go in to lay him back down and give him a kiss, he is standing at the end of his crib. His face is SO red and his hair is so light that his hairline practically glows in the dark! The first night it scared me when I walked in because I thought something was wrong until I realized his hair has just gotten so light! Also, when you go in to lay him back down and he's standing there crying, he puts his hands over his face to show you how insanely upset he is with you. Silly boy. But, we are happy with our decision to get him some rest, and also happy that we waited until now to do it and that he truly understands what is going on and we aren't leaving him in there upset because he doesn't know where we are. We are glad that we are starting to have a normal sleep schedule in the house. Even though we will have plenty of difficult nights ahead I'm sure, and he will start testing us again at some point, for now we are just happy that it wasn't so terrible at the beginning that would make us want to quit. I've heard stories of some kids screaming for 2 plus hours, and I know I would have given up if that was the case. If that first night wasn't just for 37 minutes, I probably would have ditched the plan and been stuck rocking him for a very long time every day!
Joshua was a good sleeper when he was a baby. Took amazing naps in his crib and started sleeping through the night at like 6 or 7 weeks old. We didn't feed him a bottle during the night since then. He would sleep sometimes in his swing for some naps while Jacob and I played outside, taking the monitor with us in the backyard. Jacob was able to still get some great mommy time, and Joshua loved his swing for a while.
And then, Joshua became colicky, and screamed bloody murder from 4 to 11 p.m. every single night for 6 weeks. It was terrible. And, turned into us doing practically anything to not hear screaming. Since Bob was only home 2 nights a week, it was me who heard this non-stop screaming (well, and Jacob, who bless his heart didn't complain about it once). And, when Bob was home, he didn't want to hear screaming any other time of day either. So, naps started to turn into us holding him so he could get his sleep. Bob was home for the summer after that, too, and we had two sets of hands and two kids, so Joshua was held for almost every single nap. At the time, he was still sleeping great at night, so we didn't worry about it too much.
But, Joshua decided sleep is for losers, and started waking up all the time during the night and refusing to let us put him down. And, around 12.5 or 13 months old, Joshua decided it would be a great idea to NEVER let us put him down no matter how tired or how asleep he was. We couldn't put him down for a nap or to sleep. We were still rocking him to sleep, and decided we would just refuse to hold him anymore and eventually he would be tired enough to let us put him down. This worked for about two weeks until he decided that regardless of how long you rocked him, he would stay awake so you wouldn't put him down ever. The final straw for me was rocking him for two hours and he refused to even fall asleep.
So, as a last resort, we decided to let Joshua cry it out. Never say never, right?! I could have bet money that I would never let my kids cry it out. But, Joshua is stubborn, and we tried everything else to get him to sleep without crying. But, he was getting so tired during the day that he started tripping on things and getting hurt and not even wanting to play anymore. It just wasn't doing him any good watching him desperately need sleep and not knowing how to get any rest.
The first night was this past Friday night. He screamed for 37 minutes and then fell asleep. The next night we had my in-laws in town, and Bob decided to hold Joshua for his nap that day, so it set us back a little bit. But, since then, we have been very consistent and gotten Joshua to sleep on his own every single time. Naps were definitely not happening this week unless we were in the car because he was still trying to figure out how to soothe himself. But, today he took a decent nap (wasn't happy about it, but he took one), and only cried for 4 or 5 minutes tonight before falling asleep.
I know we aren't out of the woods yet, and we have a lot of work ahead to make sure Joshua stays on track with his sleep and we don't give in and let him fall asleep on us. He seems happier when he wakes up, and it's only been a few nights. The longest he ever cried was for an hour, and that was only once. Everything else has been 30 minutes and less. I'm glad he is learning to soothe himself. I'm glad we are able to spend some more alone time with Jacob now that we are able to put Joshua to sleep and let Jacob stay up longer if he wants to.
We have used the noise machine for Joshua every night, and the projector every night except tonight. I leave the noise on rain because it's the only noise that doesn't drive me crazy. I'm sure he would sleep fine without the noise, but with it only being a week into this, I don't want to ruin a good thing!
I'm proud of our little guy for soothing himself, and happy that even though I hate hearing him cry and feel bad for his little scratchy voice, I love knowing that he desperately needed to start getting better sleep and he is now getting rest and sleeping well. He really needed the sleep!
One other thing I don't want to forget is that over the past few months his hair has REALLY lightened up. When he is screaming and I go in to lay him back down and give him a kiss, he is standing at the end of his crib. His face is SO red and his hair is so light that his hairline practically glows in the dark! The first night it scared me when I walked in because I thought something was wrong until I realized his hair has just gotten so light! Also, when you go in to lay him back down and he's standing there crying, he puts his hands over his face to show you how insanely upset he is with you. Silly boy. But, we are happy with our decision to get him some rest, and also happy that we waited until now to do it and that he truly understands what is going on and we aren't leaving him in there upset because he doesn't know where we are. We are glad that we are starting to have a normal sleep schedule in the house. Even though we will have plenty of difficult nights ahead I'm sure, and he will start testing us again at some point, for now we are just happy that it wasn't so terrible at the beginning that would make us want to quit. I've heard stories of some kids screaming for 2 plus hours, and I know I would have given up if that was the case. If that first night wasn't just for 37 minutes, I probably would have ditched the plan and been stuck rocking him for a very long time every day!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)