So after this post, things steadily disintegrated. No amount of wu wei could save me from tears last night…mine or Camper’s. Poor kid. I don’t know if it’s sleep regression, teething, growing, separation anxiety, or all of the above…all I know is that the kid don’t sleep. And when he doesn’t sleep, I don’t sleep.
In light of my new, “do what you feel is right when you feel it’s right” philosophy, I did let him cry it out a little at about 4am. When I realized that he was going to be fussy/awake no matter what I did…I decided to take the opportunity to help him learn that he can sleep on his own. 27 minutes later he fell asleep, and slept for two hours. It got to the point where I was physically unable to sit there while he wiggled and fussed- I was so tired that I was dizzy- and with John at work I realized that babies can only have what mommies can give. So it was a new experience, not altogether a bad one, but not good, either. I just made sure he had a dry diaper, didn’t want to eat, and then let him figure it out. He did ok. We were ok. (As he starts fussing now, I realize we may be in for another night of the same.)
Today was good. I went to Weight Watchers, planted some dirt (prep work for planting the seeds tomorrow), and even got a nap in thanks to my Mom and her willingness to give me a break. I didn’t get much done around the house, I didn’t even make dinner (food OUT, 1/2 Spinach Calzone…10 points…so worth it). Mostly I’ve been comforting the Camper, who seems to need his Mom a lot lately.
In cute baby news, though, he’s started to “swim” around the bathtub a little bit. Instead of sitting him on his seat, I’ve started filling the tub up with a couple of inches of water and let him swirl around a bit. He loves it, and I think it helps his muscles relax before going to bed for the night. Now that it’s warming up (almost!) I don’t think it’d be bad to let him play in the bath more often. We’ve done every other day all winter (sometimes every 3 days if we had a real cold spell), but with how much fun he has kicking around and even sticking his face in the water, I think it’s a new thing to add to our list of daily activities. I’m also thinking about getting him some baby maracas. He loves to sing and bang on his tray while I practice piano, so maybe he’d like some instruments of his own?
Maybe after Easter. He’s already got a few new toys coming his way. Now it’s time to get bottles ready for the night, fill up his humidifier, make John some lunch for work (he eats veggies if I pack them!). Maybe I’ll get some sleep tonight, maybe I won’t. Wu wei, right? Wu wei.
