Monday, August 08, 2005

Bottle Boot Camp II

We are now onto week 2 of bottle boot camp and I am proud to say that Ryan no longer needs to eat in the middle of the night!!! NOW he just wakes up every 2 hours crying.....
What to do? Usually I let him cry for 10 minutes or so (it is a weak whiny cry), but I can' t let him go any longer than that - I just can't do it! I had a friend this weekend tell me that Ryan would grow up too dependant if I kept going into his room every time he cried. Hmmmmm, he is 10 months old (TODAY!) - I think he is intitled to be slightly dependant, isn't he?
Part of his problem is that when he wakes up he wants his pacifier (which he only takes for night time bed now since I forgot to send one when we switched baby sitters 4 months ago). I have left 3 pacifiers scattered around the crib, but does he bother to look for them? NOOOOO! He stands up and begins crying for it.
Oh, lesson learned: Lay him back down before giving him the pacifier as he apparently is still sleeping and will fall back down loosing the pacifier in the process.
Of course, he also teething right now too, so that doesn't help, but that is an entirely different whiny cry.
I am at a loss - I NEED sleep!!! I figure the last full night sleep I got was somewhere around March of 2004..... Rob needs sleep. He doesn't think we should have another baby until this one can sleep. I am inclined to agree :(
Any suggestions? Solutions? Books to read?
In other news:
We had our nephew over last night. He is almost 5. Those of you from Moosejulie have heard talk of him and his (alcoholic) parents before. Basically, his parents don't care. No that isn't accurate. They care, but they can't be bothered. Does that make sense? They always end up giving in and he is a brat because of it. Also, it is no big secret that his mother drank while nursing him. Put all that together, throw in the fact that he is over 4 feet tall already (BIG KID), and you ahve one poorly adjusted child. Seriously, the kid was still in diapers, dragging a pacifier everywhere at his 4th birthday!
Anyway, dinner was not much of a battle last night (like it is when he is with his parents - interesting, no?) but I found it very strange that he has NO mastery of utensils! NONE! I asked him to use his fork and he responded that "Ryan wasn't using one". After explaining that Ryan was too little to know how (although he is getting great with a spoon - I'll show you a picture!!!), he picked up a fork. And could barely use it! And it was a child's fork! I know all kids are different and develop at different paces but I would think that basic utensil skills should be in place by the time a child starts kindergarten, right? Please correct me if I am wrong.
When I mentioned it casually to his parents when they picked him up the response I got was "yea, it's easier to get through a meal if he can do what he wants!". Great!
I woke up this morning with a sore throat that is getting worse as the day wears on. Now I ahve headache. Probably some SLEEP would make it better.....

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I know you don't want to go this route, but we ended up making Jamie cry it out. It's just something that worked for us. This sounds mean, but he would wake up at 4 a.m. just because he was in that habit, not because he was hungry. I eventually just shut my bedroom door and his and turned on my fan. He may have cried, but when I got up around 7 the next morning, he was awake and cheerful. He's slept through the night ever since! This is just my opinion, but I think children need to learn how to put themselves back to sleep and to comfort themselves. I don't feel that Ryan is too young to learn that skill. Like I said, that's just my opinion and what worked for us.

Anyway, have you considered getting Ryan one of those pascifier holders? Jamie has one that I clip onto his shirt at night so he doesn't loose his pascifier.

imstacy said...

Andrea, I can totally relate as we are approaching this stage with Ian. He got a cold a few weeks ago and was up to nurse during the night. Now he's doing it out of routine - ugh! I am like you in that I don't let him cry it out. I know it works so well for so many people, but it just doesn't for my kids. And, I just can't bear to let them cry.

As for your friend saying he'll be too dependant I would have to disagree. I always went to Ethan and he is a very independant 5 1/2 year old. :) I say they are only babies this once, I will baby them. JMHO :)

By the way, Happy 10 months Ryan!!

Hope you are feeling better today Andrea.