Another day, another night

There hasn't been a lot going on for us lately... at least nothing blog-worthy. Easton is really keeping us on our toes and seems to do something new (and generally cute) every day. I think he's developing a little personality, which at this point appears to be a rather impatient one. He wants things right when he wants them (particularly his bottle) and if he doesn't get them he screams his guts out. I've been trying to make him wait it out a bit because I don't want him learning that screaming and crying will get him what he wants (yes, you're correct... that only works for me in Stewartville).

He's been waking up a lot when we first put him down at night, so the other night I decided to make him tough it out for a bit (the 2 hour bedtime routine was getting a little old). I decided then it was his first night of no more picking him up out of the crib after he's in bed for the night (silly me...). Very long story and a TON of SCREAMING later, my sweet angel baby is asleep. Note: I feel like "SCREAMING" doesn't adequately describe what went on that night, but there isn't another word that I can use to better paint this picture for you (I know because I just used the thesaurus to look for a more appropriate term). I went back out to the living room and settled back in w/ my wine and popcorn to finish watching the Biggest Loser (more on that show later). At this point, I'm feeling very smug and patting myself on the back for being such an amazing parent. I mean, what parent would tough out that amount of screaming just to help their young child learn the invaluable lesson of becoming less demanding and more patient. I was also very happy that I finally won a pissing match with the kid, because frankly, he's tending to win all of those lately.

Then comes the sound from the baby monitor. I'm sure all you parents out there know exactly what I'm talking about. That feeling you get in your stomach when you hear a sound from the monitor. You know, just after you've decided the kiddo is down for the night and you can finally relax? But in reality you can't? And you see your nice quiet evening of watching people who are in way worse shape than you struggle through exercising while you eat your dessert and feel bad for them, because you, after all, would be able to do whatever they are doing without even breaking a sweat, which makes you feel bad for them but great about yourself? Yeah. That's what happened to me.

I usually let him makes sounds for awhile before I go in to investigate... you know, so he will become proficient at calming himself (ha. yeah right. i sit there and silently pray he will go back to sleep so I can finish watching tv). This sound was a little gaggy/gurgly so I went in and discovered that, in fact, I had not won the pissing match. He likes to scream so hard that he swallows a lot of air, which eventually has to come up. And up it came. ALL OVER THE PLACE. I'm not just talking about a "wipe and go" spit up incident. There was vomit EVERYWHERE. I picked him up and even more came up, which then went all over the floor. He had it all over him, his hair, his ears, his clothes, his bed, the floor, and me. So then, instead of taking an extra 20 minutes to soothe him back to sleep an hour before that, I then had to give him a bath in the middle of the night and change his bedding, which believe me, is no small feat when you have an exhausted 5 month old.

Anyhow. Needless to say, not a good night for me and E. The next night, I tried everything I knew to call him down, but nothing worked. I finally left his room because I just had to get away to calm myself down. About 20 seconds later he was asleep. No kidding. Sound asleep. Same thing the next night - sound asleep on his own. Just when I thought I struck the jackpot, the kiddo decides to throw a holy fit the following night. I seriously think my child is trying to make me crazy. I’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions about nighttime routines (see previous post), so hopefully this stage will actually come to pass…

Keep your fingers crossed for us!