Sunday, June 29, 2008

And the Husband of the Year Award goes to...

Do I have to spell it out for you? James had 4 gigs this week, worked 2 days in Mountain View, prepared a special, time-intensive project for the school, taught private lessons from home, updated the website he designs as a side job, helped me execute our garage sale, fixed my computer and his pedals, cooked dinner tonight, did the laundry AND still managed to spend time with Dorian and I as well. Super dad!

He leaves Tuesday morning for 2 weeks in Europe with the band and I'm dreading it. Not so much this trip but what it means for the summer. He's gone for 2 weeks, back for 10 days, then gone for a whole month. Single motherhood, here I come. It was difficult back in April but now that Dori is mobile and gets bored easily, it's going to be really tough. He is so cute though! So grown-up! So much has happened this week. We have a full-fledged crawler. And he gets into EVERYTHING. No more tidy house for me. More blogs and pictures to come this week, I promise. Now that my computer is back up and running. Best husband ever!

Friday, June 20, 2008

I HATE COMPUTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My laptop has another virus (the second in 3 months!) and I can't access the internet! Windows just shut down as well "to protect my system." James left for 3 days and took his laptop and is working long hours on Monday so it won't be fixed until Tuesday now. I know, I know, that's nothing. But you don't understand. My laptop is my life (apart from Dori). We have wiped the system twice already since we bought it. And we'll have to do it again. This laptop has given me nothing but grief since we bought it several months ago. Do not buy cheap laptops from Toshiba! I know the virus wasn't from Toshiba, but James' more pricey Toshiba doesn't ever get viruses. And we have had other issues with my laptop so I'm grouping them all together. And we can't get a video program (Real Player, Windows Media, etc) to work on it. It sucks!!!!! And my parents' computer is super old and slow so too frustrating to come up and use (though I am right now for the sake of being able to vent). Oh well. At least I'm not in school or working right now and really NEED my laptop. It's just spending time on it in the evenings after watching Dori all day is how I relax. I am so irritated right now. And it is too effing hot. I HATE it when it gets this hot in Oakland. I am in a foul mood. No one better call me. I'll bite your head off.

In other news, Dorian is as adorable as ever. Luckily.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Gifted

I have been saying for months that Dorian is gifted. Obviously, he is my son and I think he is the smartest baby to ever walk (er...creep) the planet. I read in a couple of parenting books that babies who don't sleep well could end up being gifted children. The reasoning behind this is that they are so interested in the world around them, it is hard for them to tune out. My parents are always marvelling at how task-oriented Dorian is. When he is playing with something, he keeps playing with it, manipulating it, figuring out how to make that knob move, etc. So much so that he gets frustrated at times.

Yesterday morning, Dorian woke up and started talking to us. (We've not yet restarted sleep training so Dorian is back in our bed with us.) I stuck my tongue out at him and made a "ptooey" noise (blowing raspberries). He did it back immediately. Both James and I did this for a couple minutes and he kept imitating us. Then I said "Mamamamama." What did Dorian do? He said "Mamamamama." James said "Dadadadada." Dorian? He said "Dadadadada!!!!" And back and forth, James and I switching, for a couple minutes. He never messed up. It was incredible. James and I even switched who said what and he still imitated us correctly!!!!

Did we mention this is an 8 month old baby who bangs on the drum, in perfect time, after we have done it first? This is the kid who can already play piano, guitar and mandolin better than most toddlers! The little boy who knows when his Mama has left the house, even when he is in the other room. The guy who is so close to crawling, feeding himself, being potty trained (truly - he seems to pee every time we take the diaper off!) and more. We definitely have the next Mozart or Einstein or Obama living under our roof. Yay for smart babies!
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Note: I have added the word verification setting to the comments section because I have started getting spam comments. It must mean this is a popular blog. LOL! Sorry for any hassle.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Regression

Dori has totally regressed again, in regards to his sleep habits. He had 3-4 good nights after my friend shared her sleep consultant's pearls of wisdom. Then Dorian went back to waking after 3 hours, and then every hour following. The last 2 nights, we've pulled him back into bed with us because James and I are both so exhausted. Tomorrow Dori and I are joining my parents and brother up in Grass Valley for the big California Bluegrass Association Father's Day Festival (so my mom, El Presidente, can show Dori off to all her friends). James can't come because he's gigging. Anyway, we can't continue sleep training while I'm away (I don't think the people camping near us would be too pleased, plus Dori's routine is going to be all off). So I guess we start again next week. Not that it's working. I don't understand why it stopped working - we did nothing differently. We were so consistant. He's not sick. Not teething. ARGH!!!!!

Pictures of my beautiful, sleepless boy below. He was so cute. He hadn't smiled at all in his bath tonight. The second I whipped out the camera, he started smiling and laughing. Such a smart boy!











He never has eyes for anyone else when James picks up an instrument.Dori hugs his monkey and sometimes even sucks on him in order to fall asleep at night.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

England at Christmas

We just purchased our tickets for England at Christmas. We'll be there from December 23-January 12. Yes, we're going later this year because I'm not done with finals until December 20th and then it is too pricey to fly on the week-end. We'll swoop in just before Christmas. Man, flights are not the price they used to be but this will so be worth it! James' parents and family won't have seen Dori since last Christmas so it will be another exciting holiday! I am also excited because I'm going to spend a few days in London with my good friend Sam at the end of the trip. I have been dying to go to London for years (we never went while I lived in England!!!) Roll on Christmas. Well, actually, let's enjoy our summer first. :)

Tongue & Teeth








Thumbs up for teeth!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Little Boy

Sweet potato boy.
Brown-eyed boy, orange-faced boy.
Little drummer boy.
"I'm starting to look like my Mama" boy.
Happy, talky boy!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Creepy crawly



He's so close! If he could just co-ordinate his arms and legs he'd be away. I think we need to make sure the house is baby-proof very soon.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Quick post

Things have been going really well (with sleep training). We seem to be moving more and more in the right direction as each day passes. I'll write a detailed post in a couple days. My pre-nursing program and sleep training are keeping me busy and tired so I need to go get ready for bed now. I'm pretty darn tired, but at least I feel more optimistic about it now because it seems to be getting consistently better each night.

May I just take a moment to say...

YAY FOR OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

This close to throwing in the towel...

Well, Dori woke in a good mood but that quickly shifted. About 30 minutes later, he was back to Mr. Crankster. He refused to nap this morning. Screamed for 25 minutes, so I took him out of his crib and we did something else for an hour. He was exhausted. I put him back down later and he screamed for 25 minutes again. I decided to let him keep going. About 10 minutes later, he fell asleep. For 20 minutes. I let him cry for 15, then took him out. We went and did some errands. Came back and I put him down again. He screamed for about 30 minutes. Then he fell asleep for 22 minutes and woke up. He was napping better before we started this bullshit. This whole sleep training makes me feel awful. I feel like I am totally making him mistrust me and hate me. It is so hard for me to do this. I know that in the end it may (*may*) be worth it but in the meantime, I feel like I am breaking all trust and love he has for me. It would be okay if he were actually happy when we weren't doing it, but he seems so miserable. This is absolute torture. For both of us. Is it really worth it??????

Cautiously optimistic...

So I posted an SOS on my moms' group discussion group board yesterday. One of my friends came over with her notes from when she met with a sleep consultant for her baby who did not sleep. She paid $500 to see the consultant so I was very grateful she shared what she learned with me.

Last night...

Dori slept for 7 hours, I fed him, he slept 3.5 more, I fed him, then he slept for 2 more. 6pm-6:30am. Not bad!!!!! Only minor fussing for a few minutes about 4 times in the night. My friend told me to let him cry solidly (not fussing but proper crying) for 15 minutes before feeding him. He fell back asleep right away after I fed him.

The changes I made? I put loads of soft blankets under his sheet because my friend told me his mattress was too hard...she said the consultant asked her if she'd want to sleep on a mattress that hard? They make baby mattresses hard and you are told not to put blankets, pillows, bumper pads, etc in the crib for fear of the baby suffocating or dying from SIDS. But the sleep consultant told my friend that our babies are old enough now and if they're not sleeping, we need to make their sleep environment warmer and more enticing. I actually went one step further and folded one of our adult fleece blankets and packed it in really tight over his mattress - there is no way it will come loose. But now he has soft fleece to lie on, rather than cold cotton. It's also the same kind of blanket we have in our bed (in fact it was the same one; I put a clean one in our bed) so it has my scent and also reminds him of our bed. I stuck his stuffed monkey in my bra for an hour before he went down to get my scent on it. He was clutching it when I came in to check on him throughout the night. I put a cotton onesie on under his jammies. I made sure the room was warm enough - I turned up the heater even higher than I've had it on. It seems weird to be using a heater in June but his room is a bit chilly. I made sure I did the normal bedtime routine to a T. Solid food, bath, change into pajamas, soft music on, read book, nurse him, put him down with his stuffed toy. Normally, we put him down around 7pm but he was so exhausted yesterday from no naps that I put him down at 6pm. I planned to let him cry for 35 minutes or do the wave (intermittent crying/fussing) for 50 minutes when I put him down for the night but it never came to that. I let him cry solidly for 15 minutes during the night before feeding him.

I will buy bumper pads today. I will let him cry for 25 minutes when putting him down for a nap. When that doesn't work, I am to pick him up and do something else for an hour before putting him down again. If he wakes up from a nap before an hour is up, I am to let him cry for 15 minutes to see if he'll fall back asleep.

Dori is in an awesome mood this morning!!! And so am I. I hope we see more nights like last night (or dare I say it, even better?) Thank you so much, Vicki!