Dawn's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 7/31/04 -------------------- 6/20/04 5/5/04 4/25/04 3/28/04 3/13/04 2/20/04 2/3/04 1/15/04 12/7/03 10/31/03 10/26/03 10/17/03 10/11/03 9/22/03 9/15/03 9/1/03 8/19/03 7/30/03 7/14/03 7/11/03 7/3/03 6/27/03 6/23/03 6/12/03 6/3/03 6/2/03 5/26/03 5/1/03 4/26/03 4/14/03 3/31/03 3/21/03 3/12/03 2/28/03 2/19/03 2/15/03 2/9/03 1/28/03 -------------------- Dawn's Introduction

February 19, 2003

*News on Nighttime nursing*

FOr a long time now I have comtemplated how I would bring to an end William's nighttime nursing sessions. I know that I should have done this long ago (and in fact I did atempt it with some success) but lately he has been waking up more and more and everythime he wakes I have been giving him what I call a quick fix. For him, as it sends him right back to sleep, and for me as I get back to sleep quicker as well. HOwever, I was beginning to realize that waking up half a dozen or more times a night was not good for either one of us and it had to stop. Thanks to some encouraging posts I read on the Time for you message board I have been able to stick to my guns and have made quite a bit of progress in weaning William from these night time nips. Here's how we have progressed to date.

I decided on Saturday that this was the night I would start. William's babysitter was away for the night (she lives in our basement apartment) so I knew she wouldn't be awaken by his incessant crying when I told him no bop. Right on cue at about 11:00 William woke up, just as we were getting ready for bed. I plainly told him that he couldn't have anymore bop until the morning. He was completely inconsolable, I wanted to at least comfort him but he would not hear tell of it. He wriggled angrily on the bed if I so much as touched him and he cried and cried for about 45 minutes. I have never felt so bad in my life but I took comfort in the hope that tomorrow night would be different. He didn't wake anymore until four am (the longest period of sleep for him in a long time) and I felt so bad then that I fed him. THen he slept until 7am. It was becoming clear to me, however, that my feeding him whenever he woke up was actually encouraging him to wake up more often. Am I a bad mother or what!

The next night when he woke at 11 was much better, he only cried uncontrollably for 20 minutes. But again when he woke up at four and seven and feeling so guilty about denyiny him before I fed him again. The third night, after receiving some good advice from my friends on the TFY board I refused William every time he woke up until 7:30 that morning. This night each time he woke up he merely wimpered and lay awake for about the same amount of time that he would have been nursing, and then drifted back to sleep. Ahhh, the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am happy to report that last night was better yet, I am pretty sure he only only up once or twice before finally being awaken by the telephone at 7:45 at which time of course he nursed. And I am glad to say that when de did wake up last night he made no peep whatsoever. He did try to ask for bop once, but when I replied with the now familiar phrase, Boppies are gone night night, he quietly accepted this denial and rolled over and drifted back to sleep. It also pleases me greatly that now that he is not so reliant on these nighttime feedings to get back to sleep, my portion of our king size bed has increased from about half a cot right up to the size of a twin size bed, and magically my back pain that has accompanied me every morning since I can remember appears to be gone! I wonder why.....

*William's latest achievemetns*

This morning as we were dancning around on the rug, William, who is the silliest little boy whenever music is on, did his first forward roll. Since we are now proud owners of a video camera I ran to grab it and encouraged him to do it again, but to no avail. He did look sweetly up at the camera, say cheese, and attempted another roll, but this one fell a ittle short of being the perfect forward roll he completed in the moments prior. Maybe we'll capture it next time.

I have also been noticing lately that William has been holding his crayons and markers in the proper manner (at least half of the time anyway). I have to say I am most proud of him for doing so. I guess it's all the practice he's been getting lately.

*Please call me mom*

Last week when we were driving to visit my parents, my grandmother had tagged along for the ride with us. On the way, she was back there talking to William and I heard her ask, Where's Dawn. Now I had never spent any anount of time whatsoever telling William what mommy and daddy's names were. So you can imagine my amazement when he pointed to me and said "Daw". When we returned home I was sitting at the computer one morning and he was sitting on the top floor of his toy fort (it's a handmade one in the fashion of a doll's house that his dad had when he was little). I heard him calling out, da da da over and over. I thought that was strange as he usually only calls out to his dad when he is actually in sight. Then I noticed that he was looking and pointing at me. He was calling out to me, by my name! SInce that day a week ago he has yet to call me mom. Sadly I miss being his "mommy" now I am just "Daw". He uses this new way of calling out to me constantly. I think he believes that this gets my attention more than mom, and he is probably right!

*Books for Babies*

I have probably said enough for one week, but this is something that I have been wanting to talk about for some time now and it always gets left off.

OF course I want to expose WIlliam to as much reading as I possibly can. He has tons of books, but mostly his interest has only been captured by picture book. He enjoys pointing out familiar pictures (which are almost all of them now) and trying to say some of the words or sounds associated with them. I however have been wanting to read an actual story to him forever, but most of the ones he had were too long to hold his attention, or just seemed to be boring to a tot of his age and capabilities and he would quickly move on to other things.

At Christmas he received Mmmmm Cookies, by Robert Munsch (a Canadian writer) from an Aunt. I was pleasantly suprised when I opened up this book and began to read it at how closely he paid attention to it. FOr anyone not familiar with this book, it's about a boy who makes play clay cookies and gives them first to his mom, then his dad.... and each time a cookie is made the same verse is made, for example: He whapped it in his hands, whap whap whap; Made it nice and round, swish swish swish, etc. And each time someone tastes a cookie the same verse is repeated. IT the repetition and the funny sounds I think that keeps William's attention, and he now anticipates what is going to happen next. SO I bought him another Munsch book, More Pies, which is written in much the same fashion. I am now obsessed with finding other books that use this similar pattern of repetition, although I may just end up with a huge collection of Robert Munsch books before long (which wouldn't be so bad either).

I can now hear WIlliam on the monitor calling out to Daw. I guess he still hasn't falen asleep after all this time.

I am interested in hearing about which books have most captivated the attention of your babies, and if you haven't yet found enjoyment in Munsch books, they come highly recommended by me.

Thanks for reading.
Dawn