thundering silence

GIGANTIC MILESTONE!!!

Even if he wakes up in an hour... Dylan put himself to sleep without nursing tonight!!

I was laying right beside him so I know that's breaking some of the "sleep training rules" but I wasn't touching him or talking to him. I had already nursed him and read him stories. He wanted my shirt to hold and suck on. So I gave it to him and put on another one. He only fussed a little. It took about twenty minutes for him to settle down but he did. Right before he fell asleep he got really fussy and so I turned him on his side, the way he's used to drifting off at the breast, and he fell right asleep. I was SHOCKED. He's never done that before, EVER. I've been trying to figure out how to break him from falling asleep nursing. I hope this will continue to work.

I've also been trying to get him attached to a "lovey", a Pooh Bear that someone gave us as a gift. He likes it but he seems to really dig my shirt. I slept in it and nursed him in it the night before so that must be it, it smells like me.

I have to admit that having a kid who carries his mom's shirt around as a lovey instead of a stuffed animal or blanket is probably going to be a bit odd but at this point whatever works for him is OKAY BY ME.

So we'll see how the rest of the night goes. I haven't yet moved him to his crib which could cause a wakening and a desire to nurse but I still feel like this is a huge victory. When he wakes up I'll try just giving him the shirt and see if that works but I think he'll want to nurse anyway. Which is fine at this point because I didn't plan on sleep training until we were all moved in next weekend. So any progress he makes now is just icing on the cake! If I can get him to go to bed and nap this way then I won't feel nearly as guilty  nursing him during the night, even though he's supposed to be able to go without food all night long now.

Tomorrow he'll be 7 months old. I can hardly believe it. And I can't believe he put himself to sleep tonight. I'm so happy I'm practially giddy!

Somebody stop me!

So I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight about two months ago. But these past two weeks I've been eating so much junk food that I'm putting some weight back on. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

I hate looking at the flab around the middle that was mostly gone for a while. Plus I'm not getting as much exercise again. I sure hope after we move this weekend my exercise will pick back up again when I start walking those steep ass hills around the new house.

I just feel like a big flabby pig. Oink oink.

Sleepless in San Fran

UGH I need sleep. I need more than a two hour stretch at night. I NEED Dylan to sleep for three or four hours before he cries to eat. We move this weekend and he'll have his own room and I'm afraid that all that will mean is that I have to walk farther to get him every hour and a half.

I know this phase won't last forever but I've been doing lots of reading which is messing me up, making me think that I've screwed him for life now by feeding him whenever he wants in the middle of the night and letting him sleep with us.

I just know that I can't do the cry it out thing. It makes me physically ill to hear him screaming and not be able to comfort him. I just cannot bear the thought of leaving him in his room alone to scream himself to sleep while I try not to claw through the door to rescue him. What is it exactly that he's supposed to learn in that situation??? The cry it out folks say that the first two nights the baby might cry for up to two hours and will likely throw-up from being so upset. You're suppposed to go in and clean the baby up without making eye contact or talking to them and then put them back in the crib to cry until they fall asleep. This seems like child abuse to me. And I DOUBT the baby just falls asleep, they pass out from exhaustion more like.

We've been trying to let him fuss while we sit next to the crib for upwards of twenty minutes but it always escalates to screaming, at which point we pick him up and either Michael sings to him and rocks him till he falls asleep or I do the big "no-no" and nurse him down.

I have also read that all children will teach themselves to fall asleep on their own at some point. I guess I need to be patient for that. And with all the travel we are doing over the next four months and the move, I can't imagine it's going to be easy for him to adjust to all the changes. So I guess I'll just have to get what sleep I can, when I can.

Like now when he's napping instead of sitting here posting.

Yawn.

I think I dropped something.

dylan at six months 006, originally uploaded by mmarano.

Red cat, redhead kid... the best of friends.

dylan at six months 007, originally uploaded by mmarano.

The cats love curling up next to D when he's napping.