Well obviously I'm not in Seattle but still we are quite sleepless in this household. Well at least I am and Joey is too. (So excuse the rantings of a sleep deprived woman here...) Joey's been waking up every 3 hours to eat and sometimes even more frequently. He had been sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch each night but when he got close to 3 months (he'll be 4 months tomorrow) he started waking up more... and then even more 2 weeks ago and has kept it up since. Last night he was up 1.5 hours after going back down at 3am... then up again an hour later. He's been always eating a ton when he wakes up so I'm OK with that, the big boy needs to eat. BUT he's starting to wake up more and I'm just not OK with that! I have flash backs to the days Jack woke up almost every hour after his 1st 4 hour stretch for no apparent reason. But Joey isn't Jack and I need to remind myself of that. He's a million times more mellow and I'm a 100 times less freaked about everything.... then again I'm also 10 times more tired and spent taking care of a baby and a busy bossy intense 3.5 year old at the same time. But hey I keep reminding myself this is the last time I'll be doing this since Joey is our last baby. That and I think he must be teething... he tries to gnaw his fingers off or your fingers off every chance he gets. We go in for his 4 month appt. tomorrow so maybe I'll know more then, but probably not :) since there is no magical answer with some babies.
Anyway I was also going to say there was another reason I thought of Sleepless in Seattle and wanted to blog about it. We had a really hard couple of months with Jack right after his 3rd birthday, then the past 2 months it's been sooo much easier - almost no meltdowns, less bossy, more flexible (which any thing is an improvement in flexibility for him), etc. Well about 1.5 weeks ago (just before he turned 3.5) it flared up again. I swear we now have at least one meltdown a day. And me being so tired I'm having them too -or at least not handling Jack's meltdowns all that well all the time.
Well the other day he HAD to have a certain toy/ character to watch a movie with (an almost identical but smaller replacement wouldn't do) so we looked all over... well 15 minutes later we still didn't find it, were not willing to look any longer and his time to watch the movie before dinner was running out. Dad and I both tried to explain to him that because he was being difficult, not flexible, and not willing to use a replacement toy it was almost time for dinner and there was little time left to watch the movie. Of course he spiraled into a meltdown (he was 1/2 way there) and through the tears and tantrum we hear "I don't wanna be difficult! I don't wanna be difficult!" LOL which later reminded me of a movie scene with Meg Ryan crying saying "I'm difficult, yes I'm difficult..." in relation to why some relationship didn't work. It was done in the same pitiful sad blubbering tone as Jack's "difficult" rant.
So anyway I thought, oh I can do a Sleepless in Seattle post and wrap that into it. Here I am typing it up and realize in my poor sleep deprived state that, well duh, that Meg Ryan scene was from When Harry Met Sally not Sleepless. Sigh... well I'll just use this rambling entry as proof of my mushy brain and post this anyway.
Why I am not a hypocrite
9 years ago
2 comments:
I'm sorry Jack's back to being "difficult" MJ! Cooper has the same problems although his cylces seem to be shorter. One week good, one week bad.
The only thing we've found that works is when he starts to throw a fit or cry, he has to sit on the stairs until he's done. Then when he's done he can come back in with us. Also, I watched a show on tv with some parenting scientists and they recommend totally ignoring a fit. Seriously, like walk away and keep walking even if you have to walk in circles. Eventually the child will stop. I came home from Atlanta and tried it and it works! At the same time you ignore bad behavior, you praise good behavior all the time. Anytime he's behaving well, tell him you appreciate it and tell him what he's doing right.
So far, for Cooper it's been working really well.
And I'm so sorry about Joey's waking cycles but I have no magic wand because Griffie went through it too. In fact, he started out as a great sleeper and by the time he was six months old I was so frazzled from lack of sleep! CIO wasn't an option this time because he'd wake everyone else up, too.
Hang in there. He did end up sleeping more again!
I love both those movies! Matthew and I say that all the time to each other..."I'm difficult." I also love it in the same scene where she says, "And I'm almost 40!" And he says, "When?" "Soon!" "In eight years!" "But it's there! It's just there staring at me like a big dead end." LOL
Sorry for all the sleep issues--hopefully he's gotten a little better!!!
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