The Scoop

So for the past four nights our little boy has been sleeping soooo much better I can hardly believe it. Starting on Sunday night we were able to put him down in his crib when he was so very tired and he put himself to sleep- without crying. He had been putting me through the ringer that night. I had him in the sling, listening to music, pacing around- our normal routine (a tiring one at that) and he just wasn't having any of it. He was grabbing my hair, my glasses, etc and was really miserable. This went on until way past his normal bedtime. So, having had enough of that I put him in his crib- on his belly (gasp, I know..). He immediately popped up, like always and I put him back down. We did that, he and I, for about 10 minutes until I had had enough. I walked out, shut the door and sat on the couch. Both Andy I listened, expecting him to cry. But he didn't. Not for 10 minutes, not for 15. Andy went to check on him and he was totally knocked out. He slept for 5 hours straight then I fed him and he slept until 8:30am. Wow!

what have we been doing differently? Feeding him has changed. I give him a whole jar of baby food around 4:30. Then a bowl of cereal at 6:00 and nurse him around 7:00. Then he has quieter play time and we put him down at 8:30 instead of trying at 7:30. The only downside is that this makes my day with him even longer. But he is also napping longer too. Today his morning nap was 2 and a half hours long.

We are all breathing a little lighter this week and hoping that this is a trend that will continue. I can't see any teeth coming on the horizon. The 6 that he has now will have to do for a bit. He has his 9 month appointment on Monday. I am expecting that he will be well over 21 pounds. we'll see.

Yesterday, after Bright hurt his hand a bit after sticking it into the VCR, I went to the lumber store and bought some plexiglass and heavy magnets, thinking I had a great plan to keep Bright out of the entertainment center. Andy cut the plexi down to size and glued the magnets to it and the corners of the stand (this is a Target stand, not something great by any means). Bright went over to it and immediately pulled it off. He's a strong guy. Plan #1 failed. Plan #2 was me going to the hardware store and buying super velcro and velcroing a strip all the way across the top of the plexiglass and along the edge of the entertainment center and on the bottom corners. This so far has worked. Lil' Brighty bear is not quite strong enough to rip the velcro since it is so long. All he does now is bang against it like little kids do on the glass of the monkey exhibit at a zoo. So stereo, etc are safe for another day.

In light of all of his recent developments and skills, we have decided to go easy on the Christmas decorations and just put up a table top tree and some other decorations well out of reach. We set up our Playmobile Nativity Scene the other day. We have several Playmobile scenes- they are really great and quite detailed. When we moved we put them all together in one box and now we have the nativity pieces, the haz-mat team and the butcher shop pieces all mixed with each other. As Andy was pulling them out to set up the nativity scene, he said to me- "Is this the Jesus basket, or the meat basket?" Ugh- the religious education for Bright will have to come from me and my mom because as I recall there was no basket in the nativity scene.

Well, that's a long post- time for dinner!