Playful

This is a video I just adore. Henry is so playful sometimes and he's very silly and sweet. This video was taken a while back, but there's something he does in it that he is starting to do a lot more now. It is his serious face and then his laugh after. He does it around 1 minute 5 seconds so if you are bored til then just skip to about 1 minute 5 seconds. It's so funny.

(His hair is quite greasy because I was working on getting rid of some cradle cap. If your baby has cradle cap you should lather on the bay oil--a lot--and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes then take a fine-toothed comb and brush the scalp. It works for me.)

The Special Little Guy

Currently Henry does not have a high chair. The people at Ikea say the white high chair is out of stock for 5 more weeks. We have improvised with a phone book and an Ikea place mat. Henry has really liked it, and I love the place mat.

I almost wonder if we even need to get a high chair until . . .

Henry thinks it's cool to slip down.My grandma Cameron made a cool little hen a few years ago, and Henry likes to play with it when I change him. I think it's very fitting for him: Henry and the hen.

Henry still loves the bath.

I love him so much! I love being a mom. I think he's the cutest guy ever.

I catch myself

multi-tasking when it's . . . inappropriate. I guess that's the right word.
Well, as a woman and a has-been student, and now a mom I am pretty good at multi-tasking. Women, students, and moms in my opinion have to be multi-taskers if they want to get more than like 3 things done a day--especially if one of those things is a hobby or something not related to your title. I know all of you out there do this, and I bet you're good at it. I'm not so good. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.
For instance, on any given day I find myself with 5 tasks half done. Henry's napping and I go into my bedroom. I start putting clothes away in Todd's closet and half way through I decide to make the bed and find a glass on my night stand. I walk it to the kitchen and see breakfast's dirty dishes. I start doing the dishes, finish and notice the sink is yellowing. I put some Comet on and go to the bathroom to get a scrub brush. I take a look in the mirror and practically shriek. So I fix my hair and start brushing my teeth and walk into the bedroom to put on my wedding ring that's sitting in its box on my nightstand. I notice the bed's half made and all of our clothes aren't put away yet. And then Henry cries. He's awake and I have like 5 things halfway done, and my mouth is full of foam . . . arg.
And the day continues, the jobs are done, and I feel satisfied. I sit down to my computer and stare at my glowing screen, hoping from page to page with 6-7 tabs. Find songs for my playlists, look up patterns for stuffed animals, check my email, facebook, blog, find a recipe for dinner tomorrow, look at Jon and Kate Plus 8 webisodes . . . all while I'm writing a lesson for RS. I shouldn't be surprised that I have a headache by the end of the day.
I finally kneel down to pray. Closed eyes and bowed head I start removing my rings to rub in the lotion I squirted into my palm before I kneeled. I crack my knuckle and realize I'm not praying at all! I'm in such a habit of multi-tasking that it's hard for me to simply pause to return thanks to my Maker. What has happened to me??

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1. Fishies and a bee magnet are the new objects of Henry's desire, and they are what we use to (try) to entice him to crawl. Cross your fingers for us!

So he got one . . . and is talking to it . . . and is totally content leaving the other alone. Shucks.We are trying to teach Henry to crawl, and he really doesn't like it. A few weeks ago we met with an acquaintance, Mahinder, from India. He stuck a florescent pen in front of Henry, just out of reach, and said with a knowing smirk on his face, "I know how to teach him to crawl." Henry reached, and reached, and finally fell forward onto his belly and grabbed the pen. Mahinder did know. But I did, too! I have tried this many times before--enticing him with cool objects--but Henry knows that he's got me wrapped. He knows that if he cries I'll help him. And I'm sure he didn't want to offend Mahinder by not going after his pen . . . right. Anyway, since then this has been our method to coax him to crawl. It hasn't worked yet, but we'll keep trying.

2. This is just Henry being goofy on the floor. He always has his tongue out, the silly boy!

3. Today while I was putting clothes away Henry sat and listened to a Vocal Point CD. I noticed him shaking his head, and got it on tape.

Now I'm not sure if it's because he doesn't like the song and wants to change it, or if he's just really enjoying the music and rocking out. But I think it's the first explanation. I guess he has never been to a VP concert and seen how cool they really are!

Oops!

An update on Henry's sleep:

Friday night he woke up twice and had a hard time falling back asleep and I think I know the culprit.

Beans!

Todd and I ate out at Cafe Rio and I got a yummy pork salad. You may know what it's like eating with a 10 month old baby--he's always grabbing, leaning, and whining for what's on your plate. So, to be able to enjoy my meal a little bit more I thought I'd give him a little black bean. He loved it. So, I gave him another. After about 10 beans I decided to stop.

Well, Friday night I paid for that mistake. Although he loved the beans when he was eating them, he sure didn't love them when they were inside.

He had a much better night last night. :)

Hallelujah!!

Henry is sleeping through the night!! I am a new woman. I feel like I'm going to be a (relatively) normal person again! This is seriously the most exciting thing since sliced bread.

*This is for potential moms and moms who are desperate to get their babies to stay asleep at night.

Hear my saga. For his first few months when Henry woke up at night I nursed him back to sleep. This worked. He was so little, he needed the food, and I was a new mother--waking up with him was still kind of exciting. Excitement wore off and exhaustion set in. I was zombie-mom trying to keep up with everything during the day. I soon learned that nursing him was a "trick" or "crutch" and if I kept it up I'd have to do it until he got older . . . and "older" was undefined. That scared me.

I felt so desperate to get a good night's rest. I would hear other women talk about their baby sleeping from 7 pm to 7 am without waking up, or at least getting a 6 hour stretch of sleep. I was jealous. I tried many techniques such as: the "up-down", "shush and pat", tank him up during the day and hope he'd pass over those feedings (this just resulted in a fully soaked diaper and baby by 4 a.m.), and others. We always had a good bed time ritual, and putting him to bed was pretty easy, but keeping him asleep was the hard part. I guess he had to learn how to put himself back to sleep without my help. Anyway, at about 5 months I tried letting him cry it out. Many friends and family said I just had to do it. They said the crying would taper off each night and eventually he'd sleep through the night. Well, listening to Henry cry and not doing what I knew would make him stop crying was/is REALLY tough. Tougher than child birth in my opinion.

One night after about 2 hours--seriously--of hearing him cry (and he'd stop for a few minutes, I'd feel relieved, then he'd start back up again) I gave in, nursed him, and he was back to sleep. I decided I'd rather wake up twice a night and feed him then let him cry. Besides, Todd needed his sleep so he could go to school, I'm sure the neighbors appreciated this, and I was half asleep when I fed him, it seemed like a good solution. All I knew is I could not hear him cry for 1-2 hours a night. No way. Nursing him back to sleep worked for a couple months until at his 9 month check-up the doctor told me he really should be sleeping through the night. I knew this, but I didn't know how to break the habit or get rid of his "crutch" since I thought I had tried everything.

After that appointment I decided to really try and cut out at least one of his wakings. I chose the first waking. So he woke up as usual, around 1 am, I went in, picked him up, rocked him for about 10 seconds, gave him his Binky, put him back in his crib and left the room. He cried for about 30 minutes and finally was silent. He had fallen asleep! I was shocked and so relieved. Immediately I ran in to see if he was alive and he was. Whew. He woke up again around 4 am, I fed him, and he went back to sleep and woke up around 7 am. The day went well, and we had the same night routine for a few nights. Then, his 4 am waking started getting later and later: 5 am, 6 am, and now it's 7 am. He doesn't wake up at 1-2 am anymore, and he is sleeping til 7 am! He goes to bed around 8 pm, sleeps til 7 am, I feed him, and he goes back to sleep til about 8:30 am. This transformation took about 2 weeks, and it was so worth it.

I'm not sure what finally triggered this good sleeping pattern, and I wish I had good answers for you mothers out there who are also desperate for a good night's sleep, but I give you hope!! I wondered if Henry would EVER sleep through the night and now he does. To you mothers: you're not alone! Now that I've gone through the process, I do recommend what works for me:

1) Have a bed time routine, i.e. bath, feed, story/song/prayer, bed.
2) Make the room dark, quiet, and at the right temperature, right around 70 degrees F. (You don't want to initiate any other sleep crutches such as a fan, music, white noise, etc.)
3) Put your baby in the crib awake, do not nurse to sleep, and leave the room.
4) If he cries don't rush to him right away, see if he can go to sleep (you want to teach him to learn to put himself to sleep).
5) If he hasn't gone back to sleep after maybe 5 minutes go in and calm him down with phrases like, "It's night-night. You're alright, it's time to go to sleep." Make him comfortable even if he's fighting you, and give him his favorite blankly or stuffed animal. (If Henry does wake up now I just pick him up, give him his Binky and rock him for about 10 seconds then I put him down and leave. He stops crying like 5 seconds later.)
6) Be consistent with this, you might have to let him cry for a while before you go in to calm him down again. It's okay for your baby to cry for a little (when he's older). Irrationally, I was worried that if I let him cry himself to sleep he'd hate me in the morning. Not so. I think he's much happier now that he's getting a full night of sleep.
7) Try to have a good nap schedule during the day. I've read that good naps encourage good nighttime sleeping.

Anyway, that's what has worked for me. I've probably jinxed myself and Henry will start waking up through the night again, but probably now. I'm knocking on wood as I type. I think we've finally got it . . . after 10 flippin' months!! *Big sigh of relief. (Maybe now I'm ready for another wee one--just kidding.)

So, good luck to you!! I know what you're going through!