sunday i wrote...
This was Brady's third night of crying it out. I've procrastinated a long time (and it deserves a post of its own) letting Brady cry it out so he can get back to falling asleep on his own instead of needing me to hold his hand. It's one of those things where it's great and it just works until it just doesn't anymore. So after almost two months... We're attempting to break the habit. Night one, I think he cried for an hour and a half. The second night was 1h10. And tonight was about 30 minutes. Writing it out, those lengths seem super long, but, thankfully, his crying hasn't been bad. It's like a semi-cry of "daddy" over and over. Hopefully it won't take long for him to be confident again in his ability to fall asleep without my assistance.
but then i didn't ever write anything after that. i'll try to remember what's happened since then.
the next night of crying was only 4 or 5 minutes. the night after that was maybe 10 seconds. i think the night after that was like 30-45 seconds. and then maybe a night or two of 5 seconds. and the rest of the nights have been just a huff or whimper as i kiss him goodnight but then zero crying. every night i would give him a binky and put him in his crib as usual, lying down next to the crib and holding his hand. but instead of laying there forever until he fell asleep, it was only for 5 or 10 minutes and then i would kiss him and tell him goodnight and shut the door behind me. i didn't want to do cry it out for naptime because naps are typically more difficult for a number of reasons like not being as tired and knowing that everyone else is still awake and playing. so i just chose not to do cry it out for naptime. i only ditched him for naptime once the nighttime crying was consistently down to a few seconds. so for the last few days, i have laid next to the crib for 10 minutes and then left. and he's been totally fine. tonight was the first time that i didn't lay down with him at all. i just put him in his crib, kissed him and told him goodnight and then left. he let out a "mommy" as i was telling him goodnight, but no crying. i'll consider this 100% done when he shows no anxiety at all about me leaving the room. in the mean time though, i'm kicking myself for taking so long to do cry it out... just like i anticipated being the case. i'll probably occasionally hold his hand for a few minutes before i leave (i won't lie... i've become really attached to that quiet time when we hold hands)... probably on really difficult days where i just need that positive kid interaction, but other than that, i'm looking forward to having some extra time now that i won't be spending 2+ hours of my day laying on brady's floor. and nap time is longer now. because before, i would be staying 5 or 10 minutes into brady's nap and he would only sleep for maybe an hour and a half. now, he plays for a long time before going to sleep (like an hour or so) and then sleeps for longer (at least two hours) and plays for a bit after he wakes up. on thursday, he was in his crib for nap time for four hours... it was amazing how much i got done! ...and i do like brady being well adjusted enough to fall asleep independently. that part is also nice.
for the record... he's still teething. so far, it's been 2 months and 1 week and while the top teeth have broken the skin... the bottom ones are still just hanging out... as far up as they can without breaking through. i literally did not know that i could be physically possible for a child to take multiple months for teeth to poke through.
also, since we're already talking about brady... the kid won't stop climbing. i mean, he's always been more of a climber than abigail when it comes to climbing on chairs and sofas and whatever. but within the last few days, he's started climbing on my kitchen counter tops and i can't keep him away! at first it was pretty innocent and he would push a chair over to watch me cook or to get some sippy cups to play with. and wednesday night he pushed a chair over and started shoving cantaloupe into his mouth (i was dishing up the kids' plates for dinner and i guess he didn't want to wait) and yesterday he was climbing up to check out what there was on the counter, just scavenging for food. today has by far been the worst though. this morning i was getting dressed when he walked in my room with a fistful of brownie in his hand (i had a friend drop off a plate of brownies for me yesterday and i'd just left them on the counter near the microwave). and then he did it again less than 30 minutes later. so brady had two large brownies for breakfast. at that point, i had him watch a youtube video of dogs on my laptop while i put the brownies in a tight fastening tupperware and hid them in a cabinet. but then later i found him with a cookie he'd gotten out of a ziploc bag that was on top of the microwave. the kid has a super intense sweet tooth. this evening, chris and i could not keep him off the counter tops or out of the cabinets. we were both busy doing other things so we only had half an eye on him... but he moves the chair and climbs up so fast it's crazy! and he's after sweets. he knows just how to find the skittles and sweet tarts and swedish fish.
does anyone have any suggestions for preventing this? i know i can move all the sweets to a different location but he even climbed on the counter tonight and was all "heeeeelllllllpppppppp" and i was like "brady... what are you doing up there?!" and he's all "i want a banana." i really just don't have anywhere else in the kitchen where i can relocate our fruit bowl. so give me your best ideas. preferably ones that don't involve tying our chairs to the kitchen table because i'd like to avoid that inconvenience if at all possible. but this is spiraling out of control at an alarming speed.
seriously.
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