Nugget,
You have GOT to start sleeping through the night again. You didn’t sleep through the night much last month either but we thought it was because you were sick and we were sick and we gave you a break on that one. When you’d wake up coughing or I’d wake you up with my coughing I’d stick a pacifier in your mouth because neither one of us was going to get any better without some rest; we’re not talking beauty sleep here — we’re talking ‘sleep to allow the natural processes of our body to heal itself’ kind of sleep. So now you’re addicted to the pacifier like an addict on crack and you wake up three, six, even fifteen times every night crying out for your fix. Momma’s Whooping Cough is finally gone and you haven’t been sick in almost two months so what’s the deal? You are really ruining my pride in the fact that you sleep through the night because I’m a perfect mommy.
It’s been fascinating watching you sloooooooooowly learn the concept of “cause and effect.†At first, you didn’t get it at all. You’d progressed just enough in your motor skills to take the pacifier out of your own mouth but not far enough in your mental processing skills to realize that when you committed said act, you could no longer suck on your beloved object of desire. You would snatch the pacifier out of your mouth, momentarily proud of your achievement, and then promptly burst into tears. Over this past month you’ve learned to put it back in — backwards and awkwardly at first but eventually you’d get it in right ways . . . if it were already in your hand. Now we just have to teach you how to drive the car so momma can sit in the back and do her makeup.
Can I tell you that this has been my favorite month with you? I know I said that before about one of the other months but this time I really mean it. Your personality has come out more than ever and you’re so fun to play with. Plus it’s so much easier to bond with you now that I’m no longer experiencing thrush pain. This is the first month you’ve shown any interest at all in toys other than the ones on your Aquarium Bouncer that you can kick and make the bubbles and music come alive. You ate your first solid food, rice cereal, like a champ. It just kills me the adorable noises you make while eating. I bought you the Around We Go entertainment center and you would have thought I’d offered you baby crack. You got so high off the fact you could bang your baby fists on the keys of the piano and make such wonderful sounds. I’ve never seen you so excited about something in your whole life. You had to come up with whole new sounds and facial expressions just to convey to us that you are JUST THAT MUCH MORE EXCITED! than ever before.
Your father and I love your singing (mostly night serenades); you’re really experimenting with the sounds of your mouth. Your new faces slay us (especially when you’re mimicking mommy), and your sweet “R2-D2†noises are a delight. At the first of this month we saw the beginnings of what we thought would be thumb sucking but you far prefer just to gnaw on your thumb in the side of your mouth and far, far prefer just to suck your paci. However, putting your foot in your mouth brings you much pleasure. You love to “fly†and you love to stand for long periods of time; I can easily get you to “walk†If I provide core support. You pick up each foot from the knee and step it forward like a Clydesdale when I call them out. You can lift your hips by using your feet and that has helped me change your diaper a few times. Your biggest help to me is how you “help†me get you in and out of the straps of your car seat and then will lean forward to help come out as well. You are superbaby. Just tell them I said so. You’ve started branching out and now enjoy watching the pup; things even further away get your attention as well. You enjoyed your first visit to the pool. You’ve just barely begun to reach for objects; we’ve seen you pick up your burp cloth and fling it around and make a lunge for your bottle when hungry. If you loose an object, like said burp cloth or one of your toys, then you’ll lean over looking for it. During tummy time you regressed a bit on your arms once you got good at pushing up on your legs to flip yourself over but I’ve seen the very beginnings of you trying to work on them again. I really didn’t want you to skip crawling and go straight to cruising and walking because I’ve heard that learning how to crawl helps you learn how to get the left and right hemispheres of your brain working together and dear god, what kind of baby would you be if the two halves of your brain didn’t work together! It’s be like mad baby scientist time! Perhaps this is all part of your evil baby plan.
Momma spends some time reading the blogs of other mommies at home with their children because sometimes it’s just helpful to be reminded that others have gone here before and others still are. A friend of mine wrote in her blog last week that the 2 1/2 year old son of some friends of hers just drowned in a neighbors pool. Awful tragedies like this have always bothered your momma and made her really sad but this time it felt like a punch to the stomach. My whole body filled with tears and I was consumed with a terrible sadness and despair for these parents I’d never met. I absolutely can’t even imagine loosing you now that you’re in my life and it’s nearly impossible to comprehend the depth of sadness these parents must feel never getting to hold their baby again or see him grow up or see him fall in love or see him fall down and skin his knee. While writing a reply to the mom letting her know I was praying for them you started crying in your crib. I dropped what I was doing to rush upstairs to pick you up but the situation had quickly reached DEFCON 2 and nothing I did soothed you. As I held you in my arms you cried and cried and cried and cried and I have to say, at that moment kiddo, I didn’t mind one bit.
Love,
Momma
