And it continues!

I have to say - sleep has been good.
Dax slept in til nearly 9 today!
So we're ready to move night-night to 8pm.
We did that tonight...
He fell asleep eating from the bottle tonight, so when he woke up about five minutes ago, I went in, and patted his back, and put him back down with the "it's time for night-night", told him I loved him, turned the light off and closed his door...
He's not happy...
But we'll see how long it lasts tonight... I feel bad because he went to sleep while he was eating, and woke up in bed... (that would freak me out) - but it's also nearly two hours earlier than he's been falling asleep...
We did make his day fun and long - so hopefully, it won't be long before he crashes out...
But I'd say that I'm proud that we made the decision to let him cry it out - especially since he hasn't ever cried longer than the one-hour limit, and I'd say the whole family is happier during the day.
:)

Thank you, Anne.

You empowered me!
And we've done it.
Last night, we had friends over for dinner, so it wasn't feasible to really make them listen to Dax "not want to go to sleep yet".
But tonight was the night.
Albeit, we started at 9, instead of 8 - it was a late night for Anooj and me - we hadn't connected and gotten dinner started on time - the machine was out of sync...
But, even so - when 9 came around, and Dax was LITERALLY hitting himself to stay asleep while he nursed! - I took him to his room, put his favorite blankie over my shoulder so he could snuffle it on my shoulder, and I rocked him while I sang a few songs to him. And then I said "It's time for bed, baby." And I put him in his bed.
He played for about 15 minutes.
And then he realized he was staying there... and he started calling for us... But it was about 5 or 10 minutes before he really started to yell and scream...
And Anooj and I were good. We held our ground.
It seemed like an eternity...
He was so sad... and almost sounded like he'd throw up any minute (he does that when he gets really worked up), but as suddenly as we heard the first scream, he stopped... His room was silent.
And he's asleep!
Like a baby!
In his own crib!
And in total, it was 45 minutes - from put-down to silence.
Pretty hard, but not nearly as hard as I thought it might be...
And now I can go to bed!!
:)
Woohooo!

Anne, I'll call you tomorrow!! I'm sorry I didn't get to call you back today (crazy day - I actually got out of the house for MOST of the day - I know - amazing)!
:)

Spoke too soon.

Yep - last night was another nightmare... Dax woke up every single hour... I'm about at my wits' end with no sleep...
And Dax doesn't wake up very happy in the morning.
This has to stop.
I'm trying bottles again today, and we'll see what happens.

I think I've been beaten...

There haven't been a whole lot of things in my life that I've done and have just sucked at... except for a few video games... my first marriage... I don't draw very well... (I'm sure my friends can think of a few other things I've done and sucked at - so I'll leave that for the comments section) :)
But parenting has left me completely baffled...
I mean, save from the easy aspects - clothing, diapering, general feeding - those have been fairly easy. So if I leave it at that, I could say I haven't totally sucked at this - my kid's still breathing, has grown quite a bit, and he's got clothes...
But the rest has just kicked my a$$.
Like, I don't know why Dax isn't sleeping at night... he was up every hour last night, but finally got about 2 hours straight between 5 and 7... We've tried a bedtime routine - a bath, then reading, singing, rocking, etc... no dice. And it's not that it just started to not work - it's NEVER worked. He's only slept more than 2 hours straight as many nights as I can count on my fingers... flukes, really.
He's pretty easy to get back to sleep - I rock him and pat his back, and he usually crashes out within 5-10 minutes, but sometimes even that doesn't work, and he just gets frenzied.
Breastfeeding has just served to give me more guilt - everyone says that he must not be eating enough in the day to sleep well at night... But I feed this kid every three hours, for at least 30 minutes, and I've even incorporated three solid food meals into the day on top of those feedings...
My mother in law saw him yawn the other day, and told ME that he was tired - but honest to God, when I try to put him down for a nap when I see him yawn, he rolls around and plays and screams in his crib for 20 minutes before I pull him out...
He'll take a quick catnap after he's dome nursing, but if I lay him in his crib, he instantly wakes up (or WILL wake up within 15 minutes).

So I'm trying something new.
Today I'm pumping only, and feeding by bottle, so I can get a measurement of exactly how much he IS eating during the day. I missed this morning already (I was so tired at 8, I laid down with him this morning, and he ate for nearly an hour because I was too tired to get out of bed once one half-hour had gone by).
But he took a bottle today at lunch, and I measured that he had 7.5 ounces...
and he still won't take a nap - I hear him playing in his crib, which is now turning to whining...
I better go get him.
Anyway - if anyone has any good advice for measuring feedings, how much a 10 month old SHOULD be eating at this point - I'd be grateful. Also - tell me what kind of nap routines seemed to have worked for you so far... I'm at a total loss.

I'm just hoping that the sleep will come as a byproduct of eating more than enough during the day... but I'm pretty skeptical at this point.

To First American Home Warranty

First, I'll tell everyone that we woke up this morning about 3am to our baby screaming. The house was a chilly 60 degrees... and dropping. The forecast for the night had been for temperatures in the 20s.
So I called First American Home Warranty to place a new claim, complete with a screaming baby in the background. The agent told me that our claim was placed in "emergency" status.
I should also mention that I had put a call in to First American Home Warranty the week before Christmas, saying that our heater had started making loud banging noises; that claim was denied.
So, Anooj called to check on our repair man for our newest claim, who had yet to call us by 1pm - AND THEY TOLD ANOOJ THAT OUR CLAIM HAD BEEN CANCELED.
Sweet.
Now THAT's the kind of service I would recommend to my friends.
So here's my recommendation...
DO NOT EVER CHOOSE FIRST AMERICAN HOME WARRANTY when you buy a house. I WOULD suggest you take a Home Warranty service for the first year - the seller usually pays for it, so you might as well take it - but I understand that they're all basically as helpful as First American Home Warranty. BUT, perhaps their service people are smarter... perhaps they don't errantly change order statuses from EMERGENCY to CANCELED.

FIRST AMERICAN HOME WARRANTY SUCKS.
Do not choose them.
Ever.

Just some friendly advice.
I mean, if you value your family and all.
:)

That's right! I deserve a standing ovation! ...or a sitting one...

Dax has started clapping!
It began simply on Thursday (at mom's house, did I even have to say that?) - he brought his hands together twice, but clasped them together. And he's been working on it ever since!
Mooma (Anooj's mom) was trying to get him to blow her a kiss from his hand (but he doesn't know how to kiss yet, much less kiss his hand, and even less, blow one) - and I mentally giggled at how hard she was working with him.
But lo and behold - this morning at 5:30am, I not only got an ovation from my baby after I pulled his diaper off, I got blown kisses!
Get out of town!
Just when you think you may never be appreciated...
:)

Goodness.

Dax is finally feeling better, but he's coughing now, which is still better than throwing up and blowing green snot out his cute little nose. :)
His fever broke on Wednesday night, and I was lying with him - I could feel it when he actually got cooler and a little sweaty at the same time. What a relief.
Also, I forgot to report his stats from the doctor's office!
He's nearly 31 inches tall, weighs 21 pounds, and has a 46 centimeter head! Holy cow - he's 75 percentile across the board!
(I was worried about his little head, but not so much any more - the last time we were there, his head only measure like 1 centimeter more than the time before... so much for that!) hehehehe

Here are some pictures/video from the day today:







This last one's for Jill - thank you for Dax's Christmas blankie - it's his new favorite (he only eats the ones he loves)! :)