After I published the last post, Doug decided to play Guitar Hero. Let's just say that no one plays it like Garrett. He's not only playing his own "counting" guitar, but he's dancing and even raising his guitar in the air to get the Star Power!
Garrett still loves music and loves to dance. Here he sees me taping him and starts hamming it up for the camera.
Speaking of dancing, he's getting more and more aware of things that people talk about and do on TV. He loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and at the end of each episode, they do the Hot Dog Dance. Here's Garrett doing his interpretation of that same dance.
Since we moved Garrett into his Big Boy bed, he gets really excited to see it and especially loves to jump on it. Jumping on the bed is not my favorite idea, but I can hardly keep him from doing it. Here's him enjoying the jumping with the encouragement from Daddy with a Hot Dog Dance mixed in.
Maybe crediting this doctor for our extreme good fortune last night is a bit much, but whether it was a fluke or not, I'm extremely grateful!
After Monday night's post, things did NOT improve. Doug was able to get Garrett to bed, but he woke up at about 1:30am crying. Doug went in there and tried to put him back to sleep. As soon as he left the room, Garrett started crying again. Doug went in again. At this point (since Doug was STILL trying to study) I tried to intervene. I took Garrett, put him to bed and left the room. He cried again, but this time I was waiting outside his door. I tried to wait it out by letting let him cry, but he started coughing and just about threw up. So I poked my head in and told him it was time for night-night, to lay down and go to sleep. He did go back to his bed, but continued to cry for the next 15-20 minutes. I was content to let him cry it out since it was already 2 am.
During this time, since I was wide awake, I searched for my 2nd bible, a book by Dr. Marc Weissbluth called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I used this quite frequently when we decided to start sleep training with Garrett so that we weren't rocking him for hours at a time to get him to sleep. Well, I searched for the section about kids being able to get out of bed, and doing so frequently at bedtime. It's called Jack-in-the-box Syndrome. Appropriately named, don't you think? Dr Weissbluth recommends using the Silent Return method to nip this behavior in the bud.
You do your normal bedtime routine, talking, cuddling, reading, rocking, singing, etc. After the door is closed, you basically start the silent treatment.
"Silence when you take your baby back to bed is important, because if you are sweet or stern while trying to explain why everyone needs sleep, the verbal attention will reinforce your child's desire to get out of bed to get more attention. Attending to a problem will cause the problem to occur more often. Many parents do not understand that negative attention- yelling or getting angry- is still attention, and it will encourage your child to continue the behavior."
"Every time you determine that he is out of his crib or bed, or discover him in your bed, gently place him back in his bed. Maintain silence. Plan not to sleep the first night, as he may try many, many times to get back to his old style. Parents may want to alternate nights so that at least someone gets some sleep. Do not take turns on the same night, because the child might think one parent would behave differently. Children learn quickly that there's no benefit in getting out of bed, so they stay in bed and sleep through the night."
"Expect this plan to dramatically reduce or eliminate the getting-out-of-bed routine within a few days, usually three or four."
Doug and I talked about trying this, and decided that at this point we're willing to try anything since what we're doing is not working. So last night, I put Garrett to bed after reading a book together. I told him it was bedtime and that he's to stay in his bed. Once I left the room, I started putting the gate up over his door, and he was already up and opening the door. After securing the gate, I didn't look at him or talk to him, just walked him back to bed, gave him his pipe and bear, put the covers on him and left. About 5 minutes later, the door was open again. I did the same thing. After leaving, I was paranoid that he would get too sneaky and would be standing in the dining room and we wouldn't know it. I got up several times to check, but nothing. I only had to put him back twice!
He woke up at about 12:30 crying, so I went in there, laid him down, gave him his pipe and bear, covered him up, and left. No crying when I left! About an hour later, he woke again, crying, but was able to put himself back to sleep without me getting up. He got up at 6am, which has been occurring since he could climb out of the crib on his own. But we want him to go back to sleep. So at 6 am, I got up, walked him back to his bed (silently), repeated the process, and left. He slept another hour and a half!!!
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy about how last night went. Doug and I went from 5 hours of sleep the night before, to 8 &1/2 hours last night. And Garrett didn't cry once through the whole process. Although, I have nagging feeling that it may not be just the Silent Return method that is to thank, and that tonight is going to be awful! Either way, Mommy is happy now and has a whole day off of work to enjoy it.
No, I'm not talking about our dog, Loki. But too bad those commands don't work on kids. This last weekend we transitioned Garrett from the crib to a big boy bed. But we can't seem to get it through his head that he needs to STAY there. We've tried putting one of those door knob covers on the inside knob of his room, but when he can't open the door, he freaks out and starts crying. We've been doing the gate across his door so that he can't actually leave his room, but he just opens the door and stands there yelling until you come to him. Tonight, I got home from work and Doug was no where to be found, then I noticed that Garrett's bedroom door was closed but not latched. Twenty minutes later, Doug emerges. Garrett absolutely refused to stay in his bed unless Doug was there with him.
Maybe it's my own perception, but because I'm the harder parent break in the struggle for dominance, Garrett seems to be fine when I tell him it's time for bed. He maybe gets up once or twice, but then is fine in his room. However, since I was working late tonight, Garrett seemed to hone in on the fact that Doug isn't as adamant about the rules like Mommy is and used that against him, to Doug's disadvantage. Doug has been trying to study for a test he has tomorrow, and the poor guy hasn't gotten much done tonight because of Garrett.
I'm not saying that Doug is not a good parent. He's great in the ways that I lack, like fun and spontaneity. But because we're different, he lacks in the areas I'm good at, like discipline. I noticed yesterday that when Doug and Garrett were playing in his room, Garrett used every opportunity to get his hands on his pipes and bears, even though it wasn't bedtime. As soon as I walked in the room, Garrett would look at me and immediately say "Back? Back?" and put his pipes back on the shelf. Once I realized what was happening, I tried it a couple more times... leaving the room, and reappearing later to find pipes in his possession. Every time he saw me, the pipes were immediately put back on the shelf.
It would work out fine if I was home at bedtime every night. But I have bible study every Sunday night and work until 9pm every Monday night, thus leaving Doug to handle the ever clever Garrett in my absence. Because I'm the disciplinarian, I have no problem dealing with putting Garrett to bed and maybe even letting him cry it out. But Doug gets frustrated so easily, and the added strain of school work and studying isn't helping.
Someone please tell me that this stage will be over soon. I wish that Doug weren't laid off and that he was already a nurse so I could be a stay at home mom and do those things. These are the things that I like doing, and I know that Doug would much rather be the "provider" right now, and Fun Daddy when he gets home from work. All in good time I guess. Things are looking good for Doug getting into the Nursing Program, and I'm positive Garrett can't keep this up forever...
Any suggestions to make this an easier transition for both of us?
Do you ever wonder what a 2 year old is thinking? Well, I've always been a little curious what Garrett is thinking when we tell him about his baby sister. Now that my belly is noticeably bigger, if we ask him where baby sister is, he'll point to my belly. And that's the extent of his interest. Tonight was a little different and heartbreakingly sweet.
It started off this morning with nothing but whining and constant "NO!"'s shouted at me about everything. I was getting very frustrated with him and was really ready to drop him off at daycare for others to deal with. Not a very satisfying feeling to have at 7:00 am when he's only been up for a half hour. After discussing the weird behaviors this morning from our children with a co-worker, we agreed it had something to do with the weather, a full moon, or the tides... something! After a very full day at work, I stopped and got Chinese food takeout and brought it home for dinner. Garrett was being a good little boy and he even ate his dinner.
Then after Doug and I exchanged Valentine's Day presents (candy! woo-hoo!) Garrett started babbling about something I couldn't understand. But I did catch the word "baby". So I did the usual "Where is baby sister?" and of course he pointed at my belly. I asked him if he wanted to say hi to baby sister, and he did. But what really shocked me to the point of tears was what he did next.
He leaned over and kissed my belly, then gave baby sister a hug.
Keep in mind that throughout my whole pregnancy, Garrett has not shown any interest nor true knowledge that there's another person inside me that is going to be a part of our family. But to see him respond with such love and tenderness for someone that from the beginning has been a heard but not seen "character", it was that little dose of love that I desperately needed from him.
Yes! That's right! We've finally agreed on a name. And before anyone gets too antsy, we've decided not to tell anyone. Mostly my motivation for not saying what her name is going to be is because I'd just get really ticked off if someone decided to be inconsiderate enough to say "Really? Well, I like this name...". Or they might just give a look that says "Eeehh..." like their pondering the name and decided it's not good enough according to their standards. And mostly I don't want to hear it from family. When I was pregnant with Garrett, we didn't find out the sex, but we told the names we chose. More than one family member (they shall remain nameless) commented on the fact that Garrett sounds really old fashioned. Well, too darn bad. We liked it then and we love it now. Same for this baby girl's name. And to be totally honest, once she's born, no one will really care about the name because there's this sweet, tiny, absolutely adorable little girl attached to it. So, now that we have her name picked out, it's going to be a little tough trying to not say her name when referring to her, but in the long run, I think it'll be worth it.
With a lot of things... the bathroom, this pregnancy, Garrett's time in the crib... If I really sat down and thought about all the things that are about to be finished in my life, I'm sure I could think of more than just these 3. But as of right now, I'm too tired to contemplate anymore.
As most who know me well, a very good friend of mine is due February 11th, so basically any day now. Whenever people comment at work about both of us being pregnant, we both kind of are excited about the fact that we're only 7&1/2 weeks apart. However, I've noticed that even though that's practically 2 months difference, I can't help but feel like my time is almost over too. Every time she hit a milestone in her pregnancy, it always felt like in the blink of an eye, I was hitting that milestone too. And now, to think that she could be having a baby the next few days, I feel really unprepared. Especially since we don't have a name picked out yet.
On a brighter note, my bathroom is almost finished. Well, tiling is. Doug got all the floor tiles cut, and once those are installed, the mosaic and grouting can be finished. Hopefully it'll at least get done before the baby is born, but I'm confident that it will.
As for Garrett, although I'm excited for him to move into a big boy bed, it scares me that he is able to get out of his crib all by himself, and open the door. Of course, it's all my fault for teaching him how to climb out of it in the first place, but now we're noticing that he will come out of his room on his own. This is scary for me! This morning, we heard him crying, and the next thing we knew he was standing the the hallway. After today's nap, we didn't hear a peep until he came up behind be in the hall and said "Hi!". And tonight, he's gotten out of his room twice after we put him down for the night. Although I'm not mad at him for doing it, I still feel like he's too young to be doing this. I almost fear for his safety, even though there's no more danger to him than during the day. If any mom's can help me with this anxiety or offer suggestions or solutions, please feel free to comment. I don't know, maybe it's just time we actually move him to a big boy bed. See how he does.
As for everything else, all I can say is that its time for bed. Sleeping has gotten to be a luxury, so I'd better get it while I can, huh?
