Awake Training for Parents

I did not create the letter below, but I swear sometimes I feel like Courtney did. I saw this on one of my mommy message boards and thought it was just too funny not to share.

Awake Training for Parents:

Dear Fellow Babies,

OK, here’s my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great – I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse.

I’ve talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months. Here’s the thing: these Mommies don’t really need to sleep. It’s just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep – they just don’t need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1 – cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it’s hard. It’s hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it’s for her own good.

Night 2 – cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3 – every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don’t give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I know it’s hard! But she really does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with:

-My sleep sack tickled my foot.
-I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
-My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
-I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn’t eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what’s up with that?
-The dog said “ruff”. I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
-Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
-Too hot, too cold, just right – doesn’t matter! Keep crying!!
-I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn’t like it touching me.
-I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies’ internal clocks.

Sometimes my Mommy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mommy.

Also, be wary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give Mommy false hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am positive she will start to realize that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don’t let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out.

Trust me.

Sincerely,
Baby J

Who? me?

Getting into trouble

While Courtney is still not crawling yet, she is managing to get herself into a bit of mischief. She is able to move around a lot with a combination of rolling and pulling herself along. She tends to migrate towards the furniture, where she attempts to wedge her head into various places. This never has a positive outcome. She also thoroughly enjoys playing with her diapering supplies. We're a little scared for what this will be like once she is actually mobile!

Sock monkey sock funky monkey

Christopher's sister, Shannon, made a cute funky sock monkey for Courtney. The other day I introduced Courtney to it. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures I took were blurry due to the poor lighting in her room as well as how much she moves, but you'll get the idea. I think the funky monkey is a hit.

She talks to owls

When I started thinking about how I wanted her room decorated my thoughts went towards more gender neutral themes. I recently had been on an owl kick. I accredit this to my grandmother who has a collection of owl paraphernalia. She has had her owl collection for as long as I can remember. So maybe it is my fondness of her that has made me gravitate towards owls. I found a bedding pattern I liked at target and my mom was nice enough to buy it for us. In the last month or so I have heard Courtney babbling about on the monitor. When I go in to check on her, she is looking at the owl on the side of the bumper in her crib. When I put her near it, she pets it. I think it's cute that she has apparently inherited a fondness for owls. I don't know what she tells the owl, but it doesn't seem to phase her a bit that it doesn't talk back. Perhaps she has already come to realize that the wisest friends listen and some times don't say anything back at all.

Hangin out with mom and dad

At times I wonder if the poor kid gets sick of us fussing over her. All the oooohhs and aaaahhhhss and the you're so cute and all the kisses. Once in a great while she gets tired of the kisses, but she never seems to tire of the attention. Some days the minute I leave the room, she fusses. Courtney is apparently a people person and not only wants to be around them all the time, but also wants them looking at her or playing with her. She is the center of our little universe and she wouldn't have it any other way.

 Trying on dad's hat

 

 

Exercising

Courtney plays in her exersaucer for up to an hour some times. That is great news for me as it is now the only place we can keep her contained where we know she can't get out or move. She is now officially rolling both directions. She decided to flip from back to front for the first time while I ran upstairs to get a new outfit for her. In the last few days she has been rolling both directions regularly. She seems to be growing and changing every day. It is so neat to watch her figure out new things.

She especially likes the buttons that make animal noises

 While she can get her pacifier into her mouth, she missed the mark a little here

The constant battle of teething (still no teeth yet)

 She now reaches up to try and catch the sheep as they spin around

 The hallelujah shot

 

Trying to crawl...also resembles a combination of downward facing dog with child's pose 

  

Parkour training

Bath time!

Courtney is still trying to decide whether or not she likes baths. It seems to change from week to week. Most often it seems like she is tolerating it and not really enjoying it although she does have her moments. What she decidedly does not like it having her hair washed. Maybe she is self conscious because she knows she lost a lot of her hair. It is coming back though. Maybe she is the opposite of her mama and doesn't like her hair to be touched. There is no way to know really. Hopefully as time goes on, she will learn to love it. Here are some pg pictures ;)

Before:

 Check out my do:

After: