So Camper started screaming today. Not like…mad screaming. Like,
“HEY I CAN MAKE A LOT OF NOISE IF I JUST DO THIS? CAN YOU HEAR ME? ISN”T THIS GREAT????”
screaming.
He’s always been a bit of a quiet baby. I mean, he could cry with the best of them, but even if he heard another child run by screaming like a crazy person he would imitate him quietly. Instead of the AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! he heard he’d emit a small “ahhhhhh” in response. Then he’d flash us a smile like, “Didn’t I do that CUTE-LY? Wasn’t that a CUTE yell?” And I’d say “Yes, that was a very cute yell.”
No more people. I’m not sure what switched in his brain but tonight during his SUPA BUSY time after dinner he ran around, walking in short spurts from me to the couch, from the couch to me, from me to Dad, etc. and SCREAMING.
It was pretty interesting.
Another amusing thing this holiday season has been his incessant quacking. Ducks are his best animal. He can say both duck AND quack, and aside from some confusion in the tub with a rubber ducky that has a pig’s head (yeah, are you trying to fry my kid’s brain?) he was really good at quacking whenever he saw a duck. The last week, however, he’s been quacking non stop. I finally figured out that he’s quacking when he sees ducks, penguins OR angels. Yup. Pretty much anything with wings.
So we all know I obsess about buying stuff for Camper. So I was totally excited to read a comment from Kristin asking:
Do you have a good recommendation for a baby gate? We’re buying a house next week and it’s a 2 story so I get to deal with stairs and a mobile baby… exciting, yes? :S
Why, yes, Kristin! I do! And congrats on your new house. That’s so exciting! Here are our gates. (And not the bad one we returned, either.)
You don’t want to mess with the top of the stair situation. Before reading a million reviews on Amazon I didn’t realize that the gates you wedge between door jambs are fine for blocking entrance into a room, but for the top of the stairs the best option is a gate that is actually mounted into the wall. It’s a bit of a pain to install, but that’s what husbands are for. Camper plays next to this thing ALL THE TIME, and I don’t worry. Well, not too much anyway.
Which is attractive, but honestly works just as well as another gate we picked up (we have a lot of doorways in this house) except that I think the cheaper of the two won’t hold up as well over time. The plastic on the cheaper one is already sagging a bit.
By far, though, the best purchase for us, living in a big house full of grownups has been our Metal 3-in-1 Superyard. We use it for small time outs while teaching boundaries (which he hasn’t had to have in a long time) and as a quick place you can stash the baby if you have to run to change loads of laundry or I don’t know…feel like you’re gonna puke or something and need the baby in a safe place. That hasn’t happened yet but it’s nice to know it’s an option.
So there ya go! Just in case you’re obsessed with reading reviews before buying anything. Like I am.
So we all know that I have shopping issues, and that more than anything…I am a sucker for free shipping. This is what led us to get Amazon Prime, which we pay for, to ensure that everything we order from Amazon comes to our door free of charge. But I’ve found a new place to eshop. Or would that be ishop? I don’t know…And they offer free shipping. Free.
Let’s review things I bought online for my child. His crib, his mattress, his high chair, his barnyard and bouncer and travel stroller…every baby carrier I own (we even went to a REAL store and then went home and ordered it online), and the list goes on and on. I heart buying things online. When we first moved here we even bought diapers online. I love looking through reviews and finding ways to save money and doing it all during naptime.
I heart cribs delivered to my door.
I’ve literally spent two days looking through the stuff on this here site. They have tons of baby stuff, but I was sucked into other places, too. I’ve been telling my mom that I want a tea kettle. (Her response, “Your brother always wants a tea kettle.” We are the same person sometimes.) Neither one of us drinks tea. I spent about thirty minutes looking through desks and bookshelves (I am in love love love with this one for Camper’s room. Will someone send it to me free shipping???) and all the home office furniture…remembering the fate of my IKEA desk that never made it onto the moving truck to New England. It was a piece o crap.
(Ah, memories…my brother and our IKEA haul of 2007. Always seems exciting at the time…until stuff starts breaking. Ack.)
(By the way, Jonathan, that’s a very rude hand gesture in England.)
I am currently dreaming about my future bedroom, complete with bedside tables and all. Currently we have no bedside tables…as our bed is about as wide as the wall it’s on…(between the hall door and the bathroom door). Sigh. One day.
Do you like my wee wish book? Complete with my own dreamhouse blueprint (if they built a house following it…I’m pretty sure no furniture would even line up against a straight wall…and we might not actually be able to access the bathrooms…since I forgot to draw doors).
So thank you, csn stores (what does that stand for anyway?)…for creating one more thing to distract me from my budget goals.
Camper is nearly 11 months old, and I’ve been reflecting as of late to the little tricks I’ve learned when it comes to feeding/putting him down to sleep/taking him places, etc. I love my child dearly, and would never ever trade him in for the better sleeping model…but let’s just say I am qualified in the “getting the tricky baby to eat” and the “getting the tricky baby to sleep” departments. Here is some of what I’ve learned.
-If you are going to do the cry it out thing, do it BEFORE the baby can pull himself/herself up on things. I am SO GLAD we got Camper to lay down in his crib awake and put himself to sleep before he learned this new little skill. Sure, he’ll crawl around and pull himself up, and even walk around his crib these days. But when he’s tired he will lay down and go to sleep. *crosses fingers* We have never experienced the standing/screaming/won’t go to sleep baby at bedtime. I HAVE heard him screaming to go in there and find him awake, standing up and waiting for a diaper change or a bottle, but that’s a whole different story than the lay him down, he stands up game when it’s time for him to fall asleep.
-If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a lifetime earning your “picky eater” child with your own non-veggie eating habits. My veggie trick is threefold. 1) Try to eat more veggies myself. 2) Try to get him to eat veggies for lunch, not in the morning when I’m tired, not at dinner when I’m tired and REALLY want him to get a belly full of food. 3) Offer them and feel better about life. I tell myself that although he’s taken to spitting out all his veggies, I offer them to him, and that’s all I can do. I survived until I was 17 without eating anything but corn.
-Bottles before or after naps, in the same quiet place every time. As Camper has grown busier, he’s less into bottles. For a few weeks now he’s only eaten 2 oz. or so every so often, some days not taking any at all until the middle of the night. Giving him a bottle when he can see people or things he wants to play with is an arduous process. Now I give him one when he first wakes up in the morning (anywhere from 4am-6am) and then after naptimes, still in his room before I even change his diaper. This switch in the last coupel of days has meant that he’s eaten at least 3 full (for him) bottles a day. Lo and behold, he’s slept through the night again for the last three days. (After a month of NOT sleeping.)
-DVR. Yes people. My kid and I watch TV. We don’t do it all day, every day, but we watch our fair amount. I recently found out that some of the best kid shows in my area come on at about 11pm…I don’t know why Noggin is 24 hours a day, but it is. I set the DVR to record my favorite shows for Camper, and then I feel less guilty (and annoyed) watching Dora the Explorer or Lazytown AGAIN because I REALLY NEED TO DO LAUNDRY and those annoying characters are the only thing on TV. I feel much more in control of what he sees, and by extension…what I have to listen to. Now I’m just awaiting the day when Noggin schedules some Upsidedown Show so I can record that mo and watch it a hundred times. Sigh.
-Change the sheets. I was at such a loss as to how I could allow Camper to have his favorite blanket safely…since he almost smothered himself with it one time. After this little fix, I figured out that it was big enough to lay over his mattress and tuck in all around. Now he has a fleecy sheet to sleep on, and he’s sleeping a lot better. We want our beds to be cozy for us, so switch things up and find a way to make it cozy for them. (We also have flannel sheets for winter, because the cold shock of the sheet would wake him up every time we tried to lay him down when he was younger.)
-Helping him help himself. I keep a teething toy in Camper’s crib, because I would hate for him to be stuck in there with no way to ease his own pain. This was the only thing I could think of when I decided that Tylenol everyday really isn’t any option, and I started finding bite marks on the sides of his crib. He didn’t CRY, he just gophered his crib! I also kept a sippy cup of water in there for a bit, but after he cried a couple of times because he couldn’t drink out of it in his sleepy state, I decided that out of sight out of mind was probably best. If he’s really thirsty he cries and I bring him some water.
-On the subject of cups. I bought two kinds of cups that we actually use. This kind, and this kind. I’ve probably had a dozen cup in different prices ranges…and these ones WORK. They are also CHEAP and BPA FREE. They aren’t, however, “spill free,” but I like to think he’s learning not to spill. Also, he learned to drink out of them because he doesn’t turn his face inside out trying to sip them. Have you ever tried to drink out of some of the cups with valves in them? I had a hard time, and I’ve been doing this whole drinking things for awhile. I even know how to use a straw.
-One more thing on the subject of “feeding.” Since he’s been in his high chair I’ve kept him in his chair after he’s finished eating and handed him a rag so that he can “wipe his tray.” Now…the tray he ate off of actually comes off, and I wash that in the sink, so what’s he actually washing is the clean wooden tray under the plastic one. I then hand him a dry towel so that he can dry himself (after I wipe him down) and his tray. In the past he’s just chewed on the towels, but lately he’ll swipe them around a bit. I HOPE HOPE HOPE that from the beginning my child will learn that eating creates a mess which must be cleaned up before we move on. We can clean up together. A little helping never hurt. What’s 5 minutes to teach him to clean up after himself? You’re welcome, Camper’s future wife. You’re welcome.
What about you? Any new tricks in the last few months?
And just because this is brightening up laundry day, here’s a little song for you. Courtesy of Noggin and Jack’s Big Music Show.
So after agonizing and blogging about Bubby’s eating and sleeping this past few days…OBSESSIVELY…I’ve reached out to a couple of people, read some things, and come to a conclusion.
We are fine.
I still like the nutrition chart. My mom told me to make sure I didn’t freak myself out about it too much, that all I have to do is look at my child to know he’s healthy. He still in the 75% for all his stats, he has lots of energy and likes to eat…most days. The chart is less for anal record keeping me and more for the “I don’t want to have to think about it too hard” me. I can just glance and know that he’s at least well-rounded, and it’ll get me thinking about the different things he needs to be healthy before he’s off the formula and I’m responsible for getting him all that nutrition with the foods I give him at mealtimes and snacks. As for his fluctuating 4-5 oz. bottles, I’m not stressed. Sure, there are a lot of babies that will take 8 oz. bottles, but Camper doesn’t. No amount of sitting with the bottle in his mouth or stretching the time between feedings will do it. So that’s how it is.
And as for SLEEP. I was completely fine with our arrangement before the doctor gave me “new” expectations. For now, I’m going to keep on keeping on with what I’m doing, with one small adjustment. Instead of feeding him in the middle of the night/morning, I’ll try to comfort him back to sleep first. Also, if he eats, I’m going to try just 2 oz. to see if he’s just using it for comfort. If so, we can work on getting him off midnight feedings altogether. If he still seems hungry and restless, we’ll go from there. I’m giving it one month without thinking about it, and then I will start some more formal “sleep training.” I will still rock him to sleep at night- I can’t imagine just laying him down without cuddle time first. When John and I talked about it, we decided that he’ll have a whole new bucket of sleep issues with the different stages he goes through, so why break my back trying to change something that I feel sad to leave behind? Sure, I’m tired sometimes. Sure, sometimes I wish he’d sleep through the night. But if the trade off is not rocking my baby to sleep, listening to him cry while I could be cuddling him and watching his eyes close, smiling the erratic sleep smiles he’s had since he was a newborn…
So my decision is not to make one. No big routines to follow, no new “rules.” Just follow my intution, do what I can handle, emotionally and physcially, and maybe next month thing will be different. Thanks for the advice and help, everyone.
Bottle Warming: From MUCH experience, we finally discovered that the best thing for bottle warming on the go is actually a thermos full of boiling water (obtained from obliging coffee machines) added to a cool bottle to warm it up just a bit. When it’s new, 2 oz. hot to 3 oz. cold seemed to yield the perfect temp. At home, we got this handy little electric kettle. I remembered my England days and how everyone had one and used it for everything. Nighttime bottles are quick, just about 1 minute to boiling, and then add to cool water and WA LA.
Swaddles: I am sad to say that Camper has started to Houdini out of his miracle blanket, but it has been the best swaddle, by FAR. Many precious nights of sleep gained from this nice little device.
Cozy Carseat: The OH SO HANDY Bundle Me. I gotta tell you, not having to wrestle Camper into a baby coat contraption in a car before a pit stop in Kansas with temps below freezing and crazy winds was nice. Very very nice.
That’s all for now…just wanted to share the things we love!
