7 Quick Takes Vol. 22

It has been like 58 years since I've done a QT post. So much has happened lately that I will never catch up, so I'll do a condensed-ish version of it all. Be sure to visit the lovely Jen for more Quick Takes!


1.
It was a three day affair for my aunt Joy's funeral. Her wake was Tuesday night and funeral was Wednesday in Joplin. Her burial was all the way back up in my hometown, about 5 hours away on Thursday. It was three days of laughter, tears, memories, good food and lots of beer. My brother wrote an excellent post capturing the atmosphere of the week. You can read it here.

We took Joe with us for the whole thing. There was lots and lots of driving, tons of people and new places and his schedule went down the pooper. But he did very well!

I want to thank you all for your prayers and kind words for my family. I could definitely feel a sense of warmth and peace around us.

2. You may recall a couple months ago I had to send Joe to occupational therapy for his swallowing food problems. I never really updated y'all on how that went.

His first appointment was at the end of November and we spent an hour and a half watching him eat different things. The therapist gave us different pointers and some little chewy tubes for him to get used to having stuff in the back of his mouth. At his follow up appointment in the middle of December he had pretty much gotten over his gagging and troubles swallowing but now he was pocketing food. I would give him some lunch meat and he'd just store it in his cheeks and finally after about a half hour he would have swallowed it. I was wondering since his one year molars were all coming in at the same time that maybe it hurt him to chew so that's why he was pocketing. The therapist didn't seem to think so and gave me some more instructions on how to stop the pocketing.

At Christmas we went to my mom's house and he became addicted to poppy seed bread. He was constantly snacking on it. It was then I noticed he wasn't holding his food in, so I just started giving him all sorts of food and he did great!

Since then he hasn't gagged or pocketed his food. Now I have the normal challenge of a typical picky toddler. It's so fun to give him food he does like because everything he puts it in his mouth he goes, "Mmmm!!!" It's adorable.

We were supposed to go for another OT session in January but after I called the therapist and explained the situation she said there was no need for him to come back in! I figured this was something he would have to outgrow, but I am thankful we did take him in to the occupational therapist because she did help us out a lot!

3. If you are a Facebook friend of mine you already know that Joe has become quite the little terror. Pretty much everyday I have to run and stop him from scaling the cabinets or take a flying leap off the top of the stairs. Many days I have to say "Shh!" when he is screaming at the top of his lungs and pretty much twice a week I have to stop him from eating paper (after I realize he already ate half the page.) I am really having to start disciplining him. I think he's not quite old enough for the time-out so it's a lot of redirecting. I still get down on his level and explain to him why I am taking his toy away or why he has to go into the other room. I know he doesn't quite understand that, but it's really for my own practice. It doesn't help matters any when he starts laughing at me and acting all cute when I am trying to be serious.

Sometimes I semi-freak out knowing that these tantrums, these disobedient outbursts- well, they are pretty much going to last forever. But the good times and the blooper moments outweigh all those, right? RIGHT?!?!

4. I decided it's finally time to stop nursing. Joe is a nightly marathon nurser. I was waking up 4 of 5 times a night to nurse him. But it wasn't peaceful co-sleeping nursing. We put him to sleep in his play pen and then when I get up to nurse him the first time I usually expect him to just continue sleeping with me. Joe always has other plans. He wants to jump off the bed or play with the shelf hanging above our bed. It has been more than once that the pictures of the Sacred Heart of Mary and Jesus have fallen on my head.

When he nurses he nurses about 2 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other side over and over and over again for about 10-15 minutes. I have to sleep on my back which is super annoying.

I didn't want to give up night nursing quite yet despite these challenges. We had a deep bond. I remember one time laying with him nursing him and and I was humming him a lullaby. He looks up with his big blue eyes and reaches up to my face. I thought he was going to stroke my cheek but he just stuck his finger up my nose. It was these funny moments I would miss.

However, in the last month, nursing has become a huge burden for me. There will be times he has nursed for 30 minutes then stop and start to drift off to sleep. I flip over to lay on my stomach and he gets straight up pissed off. He sits up and starts pulling my shirt and pushing me to turn over. I say, "No, no. It's time to sleep" and he slaps me on my face repeatedly. You have no idea how much that infuriates me. His screaming gets louder and louder and he gets more violent. I put him back in his play pen and he screams even louder. So all I can really do is just give in. I decided last week that I was just going to nurse him before I put him to bed and that was it. I also decided to remove myself from the entire situation and sleep in the guest bed. I was going to have my husband take on the sole responsibility of comforting him if he cried for too long. I admit I was very nervous and uneasy about being away from Joe. The first two nights went very well. He only woke up a few times but didn't cry very long.

I thought that I would really dread giving up nursing. I knew I was going to do it sooner rather than later due to this pregnancy, but I just never thought of the reality. However, I am somewhat relieved that our nursing relationship is coming to a close. I wish it would have been him choosing to end the relationship, because I feel like a horrible mother for initiating the end. But I think it will be good in the long run for both of us, especially now if I get more sleep I won't be so grumpy as a mother.

5. I said the first two nights of night weaning went well, but that all changed this past Saturday. I noticed in the morning when I went into his room he was attempting to climb the walls of his play pen. I never thought he would be able to get out. He tried a few times and did not succeed. I took him out and we started our morning. During his morning quiet time I put him in his play pen with books and toys like I always do. I turned on the video baby monitor and started browsing the internet. I looked at the monitor just in time to see him half way up the play pen wall. I jumped up and ran to the door and heard THUD! The little bugger had crawled out! Unfortunately he did not know what to do whenever he crossed over the bar and he ended up falling. By the time I got in there and around the play pen he was sitting up on the floor. He cried for about 20 seconds and my heart stopped beating for about 25 seconds.

Our next challenge was trying to figure out where he was going to sleep. We have a very nice crib but he only slept in it when he was a couple months old before he started despising it. He never ever ever ever would sleep in there so that's why we started using the play pen. We tried every once in a while to get him to sleep in his crib but it was an epic fail. So here we were, two nights into night weaning and now we'd have to put him in his arch enemy. We pulled out the crib and removed all the dirty laundry from it and tested it during his nap. He slept perfectly in it. No screaming- nothing. He slept awesome in it that night as well. I have no clue what made him change his mind.

Buuuuuuut, then my aunt passed away and we had to go out of town and bring the play pen. Which meant we had to do back to the all night co-sleeping and nursing. But last night was our first night back at home and I started right back into the crib and night weaning. So far so good! And it was adorable when I went to wake him up this morning and his little legs were sticking out of the crib rails. I'm praying we're on a road to sleeping through the night!

6. Joe loves Sesame Street which is kind of funny because both my husband and I HATED it when we were growing up. But since Joe's growing fondness of Sesame Street started I have become increasingly fascinated with the puppeteering and history of the show. (Yes, I am a huge nerd and will freely admit to that!) I've found out so many neat little facts. Did you know that the voice of Yoda in Star Wars is the same as the original Cookie Monster? Did you know that Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird are the same voice, and Oscar was originally orange instead of green?

My sister in law gave Ryan, Joe and me the DVD Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days. The first DVD contains segments from the 1970's and 80's, and the second DVD is the 1990's and 2000's. Both Ryan and I enjoy the first DVD. There is some really funny stuff in there. But the DVD from the years I remember watching it as a child- ugh, they are HORRIBLE! It's weird and cheesy and not good at all. The only thing that makes watching that DVD bearable is making fun of the 90's clothes and seeing the Goo Goo Dolls and the Spin Doctors sing with Elmo. There is also a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes stuff.

I just recently found out there is a 304 page book that goes along with the DVD's! I got an Amazon gift card from doing an NFP research study and plan on purchasing the book (along with a book about vaccines and a book about VBAC's. That's quite the interesting combo.) Again, I know I am a dork.

7. I made a little announcement awhile back about our little bun in the oven. I haven't really had a chance to write about my feelings toward this pregnancy, but I will be doing that soon. I am 14 weeks today and feel tired out of my freakin' mind. I also look like I'm 8 months pregnant which makes me feel super awesome. Aaaaaaand I got a fresh batch of pregnancy hormones that have automatically made me pissy, so if you want to write a nice/funny comment in the combox to cheer me up I won't stop you. :-)

Have a great weekend!