I’m not looking forward to the next couple of weeks because our little family is going to embark on so much change (such big, big change), that I literally ball up in anxiety and “aksmiuwnjibr!”-ness thinking about it. That was a full blown spaz attack, by the way.
Most of it I’m not ready to talk about, but the adjustments we need to make with Aiman are plenty to make a post out of. Firstly would be his bottle and how we are going to be damned to Hell for not having him off of it by now. He’s a 12 month old, guys. Let’s remember that although his pediatrician and dentist say that he should be off of it by the end of this month (so in about 10 more days?) let’s not forget that a) Saad and I HATE the cry-it-out method and don’t think it resolves anything without unnecessarily making Aiman, or any baby for that matter, cry. And we can’t bare to have Aiman cry his eyes out and feel like we’re ignoring him or not responding for something he feels like he needs, but can’t have, why? Because mom and dad said so –EH! NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Anyway, to make a long explanation short, cry-it-out will not be practiced in this house. I’d rather hold him down and get him to drink his milk out of his sippy cup, if I have to. By the way, he’ll drink anything else out of a regular cup or his sippy cup, but his milk? He’ll actually give you a look that says exactly “Oh. hell. no. Don’t even try this mess again. Milk = bottle. Get it right.”
Wait, where was I? Oh yes: a) we don’t like cry-it-out and b) I don’t think any baby, or most at least, drop the bottle in a week or even in a month’s time. That’s a little unrealistic to me because he’s spent his entire life on a bottle and now the one thing he’s most familiar with and even dependent on for eating or drinking, he’s expected to just let go? No, I doubt it works that way. And it’s going to take extra time because we’re tying to make it as bearable as possible.
Another thing is our sleeping arrangements. Aiman is still sleeping in our bed at 12 months old and some days I wake up thinking OH SWEET BABY OF MINE, HOW I LOVE YOUUUU! Other days it’s more like THIS IS GOING TO BE THE VERY LAST NIGHT!
But let me tell you about his new set of tricks. You are already know that he bothers me out of my mind during the night, yet leaves Saad completely alone, right? Okay, so now he likes to sleep on his belly but only from his waist up, so his legs and hiney are propped up and the pillow underneath his upper body even out his posture. Does that make sense? Anyway, he ends up that way no matter how you lay him down and position/reposition him. And guess who’s pillow he loves more than any other? Mine. He starts off subtly at first and then makes his way onto my entire pillow leaving my head crammed in between the wall and the mattress.
This next trick is his favorite. Every night, in the middle of the night or early morning, he’ll suddenly jerk upright, look around, feel for my face until I turn face up, and then climb on top of me to sleep on my chest. He’ll get comfy sprawled out on my chest and sleep until we all get up.
So in the last few weeks we learned that “mother” is synonymous with “mattress”.
But this is a 26 lb baby on my chest, thinking he still weights 7lbs and not suffocating me. I also can’t sleep in one position (and especially on my back) throughout the night and whenever I try to move, Oh! Look! Heavy baby on my rib cage, locking me in place.
Saad says that all of his “tricks” from wanting extra attention to his early morning chest climbing escapades are just his ways of loving me. Which I love and appreciate. Sort of. But it’s also easier for him to say that when he gets a full night’s rest.
So I’m torn about moving him to his crib, which will be another hurdle to overcome like weaning off of the bottle. This one year mark comes with a lot of hurdles no one really mentions. At any rate, I’m looking for advice, tips, tricks -anything!- to help with either or both.
So if you have ideas or stories to make me feel better (because I will take that too), spill em!
I am more than desperate.
Oh god, I wish I could help but I have the feeling that when I want to move Jonah into his own crib YOU’LL be helping ME! I have said all along that I will move Jonah out of our bed when he is one year old…. you’ll have to keep me informed of how the transition goes….
and I am completely anti CIO, too.
How about this? We let Josh have his one evening bottle until he was 2. And his teeth are fine.
I don’t know what to say about the sleeping. He always slept in his own bed because I was terrified I would roll over on him.
Oh wooooooow, I just saw this.
Jasper is ALL ABOUT my side of the bed. Apparently, it is the greatest place to be. If we even try to move him near Sean, he starts feeling around on Sean’s face and then cries when he realizes it’s not mine. As soon as he’s back near me? He digs his feet in my stomach, grabs a fist full of hair to twirl, and drifts off. I absolutely love having him sleep with us, but sometimes…oh man. The plan is for him to sleep with us until he’s ready for his own bed/18 months, whichever happens first, and we don’t have a crib at all. We’re hoping to move sometime next year, around September, so we may put off moving him to his own bed until after that, because moving alone will be a big enough change for him. So I clearly have no advice for you really, but I can relate.
As for the bottle, I also don’t know, since we’re just nursing/eat solids. Jazz won’t take a bottle at all, so…yeah. I’m starting to wean him now, since I want to do it gradually, so I’m taking out feedings and adding solid foods and sippy cups of juice and water and all of that. I have worked in day cares and seen plenty of kids with bottles past 12 months, though…I don’t know. As long as he’s brushing his teeth, it should be ok, right? Why do they say he can’t have it?
We’re very very very anti CIO also.
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