I’m sleeping!

Chiro, massage, and naturopath all had their crack at me, but it was acupuncture that finally did it! After I explained the symptoms, he decided which spots he would use and put a total of 11 needles in me. They didn’t hurt - they’re so thin - just a bit of a pinch as they went in. After he had put them in, he left the room and I promptly fell asleep! I had a wonderful 20-30 min nap. He tapped into the energy of the heart. Not that there was anything wrong with my heart, but the heart energy was obviously clogged up somewhere along the way and he managed to unblock it. That night, I fell asleep as though I’d never had an issue at all and slept right through the whole night, waking up so refreshed! And it’s continued ever since. I went back for a few more appointments, but I don’t know if they were really necessary. That one session cleared the blockage, whatever it was, and it’s all behind me now. Wow!!! Thank you, acupuncture!

And I’m not the only one getting some good restful sleep around here - Nicholas went through about a week of being sick and barely sleeping (remember those horrific nights at my mum’s in March) and then happily settled into a steady pattern of going to bed around 8pm and sleeping right through to 7am! Yay! Sometimes he wakes up a bit earlier, but he’ll just lie in the crib, happily chatting and singing to himself, for a while at least, before he starts asking for “chita”.

Oh, and somewhere in the last month he started talking, too! He’s picking up words quickly, especially all the ones that have to do with sports. If it involves a stick, bat, ball, puck, birdie, net, etc., he’s all over it! While he really enjoys music still, his first love is clearly sports!

Wet weekend

We spent Easter weekend with Patrick’s parents (our second 4-day weekend in a row). Nicholas had a blast going up and down the stairs repeatedly, much to Gramma’s concern. I tried to sit back and take the “he’s gotta learn” approach and he actually was just fine - no tumbles, thank goodness. He’s really got the handle of them now. It’s funny when he goes upstairs holding our hands - he likes to take one step per foot, just like we do, so he can almost climb them faster than we do. Going down is a mix of either holding a hand and the railing or deciding that’s not fast enough so going down on his hands and knees.

Nicholas went out on the beach for a walk with Gramma, Grampa, and Daddy while Mummy tried to get 40 winks. I haven’t been sleeping more than 3 hours a day since the end of January and really hoped that this trip would get me over the hump and back into a regular sleep pattern again. Just before I laid down, I watched them all playing on the beach. Patrick was shooting video of the area, Peter was kicking the ball for Nicholas to chase, and Janey was watching. Suddenly, the wind caught the ball and blew it toward the ocean … and into the water. Nicholas was still chasing it. My heart stopped as I could see what was about to happen and realized that no one was making a move to stop it (they hadn’t noticed or realized it yet). I tried to open the sliding door, but it was locked (one of those great security locks on the bottom). My heart jumped into my throat. Nicholas was now running full tilt for the water and still no one was stopping him. I banged on the door, screaming at the top of my lungs, but they couldn’t hear me. I was completely helpless to prevent my child (remember he’s only 19 months at this point) from making a possibly disastrous choice. As Patrick turned with the camera, he suddenly became aware of what was happening, just as Nicholas entered the water and topple over, face first. He practically threw the video camera to his mother and dashed after Nicholas, getting wet up to his knees, but rescuing my darling little boy from a fate much worse than being wet. Meanwhile, I’m madly dashing from room to room, still trying to open doors (stupid burglar-proof locks).

When Patrick brought Nicholas up to the house to dry off, the little trooper didn’t even seem to mind. He wasn’t nearly as wet as I had expected, considering he had done a face plant into the ocean - he was wearing his MEC Muddy Buddy (one piece rain suit), so the water had only entered at his ankles and a bit around the neck. The skin that had been exposed (hands, face, neck) were very chilly and red, but he didn’t seem phased at all by the whole ordeal. Couldn’t say the same for me. I was CRAAAAAANKY at everyone and everything, except Nicholas, who I cuddled and cuddled to help him warm up and reassure myself he was safe in my arms. Sure hope nothing like that ever happens again - the feeling of being completely helpless in that situation took at least a couple of years off my heart’s life!

Sleep was a mixed bag - some nights he went down without a single fuss, but others he would cry for quite a while before he would finally settle or I would go in to settle him. For the most part, he really only cries when he’s not tired enough to sleep, which is better than crying just because he doesn’t want to be there.  My sleep pattern hasn’t improved - still no more than 3 hours at a time.  I’m having a touch time staying awake through the day now.  A couple of times I’ve passed out quite suddenly in the middle of the afternoon - thank goodness our home has been mostly baby-proofed and Nicholas can amuse himself for an hour or so on his own.  I really thought this weekend would make all the difference, but alas … it didn’t.  I think it’s time to start looking for some help with it.

Retirement

A “somewhat surprise” trip to Kelowna (we arrived a day earlier than Mum expected us to) this past weekend for Mum’s retirement and birthday parties. We arrived at her office mid-afternoon and as we came around the corner to her desk, Nicholas heard her talking on the phone. He quietly enquired, “Nana?” and walked toward her voice just as she was hanging up the phone. She sprung out of her chair and scooped him up, with a look of shock on her face. We thought, for sure, she knew we were arriving a day early, even though we’d told her Patrick couldn’t get 2 days off work, but she seemed genuinely surprised.

She was finishing up the last few tasks before walking away from her desk for the last time to join the ranks of the retirees. What fun! The next day was her birthday as well as her first day of retirement. I know we’ll see a lot more of her now that she’ll have more time on her hands - lucky for Nicholas that his grand-parents live so (reasonably) close that he can seem them quite a few times a year.

Nicholas’ sleeping trend continued on for a 3rd night and then went the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He was miserable and screaming during every naptime and multiple times through the night, wanting to nurse non-stop. It was exhausting!

On top of that, I have been struggling with sleep since the end of January - I’ve only been able to sleep a maximum of 2-3 hours at a time, no matter when I try to sleep (during the night or day). I had hoped that this long weekend away would help me get back on track, but Nicholas’ lack of a reasonable sleep pattern didn’t help me with that (if it would have worked, anyways). Maybe next weekend when we’re visiting Patrick’s parents…

Words and Tooth #13

Kids develop at such different rates when they are this young, so I wasn’t completely surprised to hear some of Nicholas’ peers talking in full sentences recently, when he can say very few words (except, of course, his absolute favourites … baseball and basketball). Imagine my surprise, though, when I stumbled across this article about a 17-month-old girl who can not only speak many words, but actually READ them! People are often impressed by Nicholas’ ability to communicate in 3 languages (English, Spanish, and ASL), but that really takes the cake!

His words have really started to form in the last week - he’s made a huge effort to mimic us, even if he doesn’t have all the consonant sounds yet - he almost always gets the right number of syllables and vowel sounds. “S” is a very difficult sound for him, as well as “F” and “T”. He’s much better with “L” now, though, as he’s been working overtime on the word “ball”. I know repetition is the key, but my goodness I’m tired of hearing that word!

Tooth #13 broke through last Thursday. My last post was a week ago, when I commented on how peaceful it had been to have 2 nights of full sleep. We had one more - 3’s a charm - and then went into 4 nights of horrific sleep. After the first night (Wed), we noticed that his first canine had finally popped through the gums (top left) and assumed that was the source of his discontent. I don’t know for sure now if that’s all it was, or perhaps combined with a cold because he’s been coughing like crazy, but he had 4 nights of fitful sleep, waking me up every 1-2 hours to cuddle or nurse (the cuddling was new - in the past, only nursing would put him back to sleep). Three of the four nights were, of course, while we were visiting my mum to celebrate her retirement and birthday. Our first night back home, he slept right through the night again. Mmmm, sounds like he’s waking up (1:30am) - let’s see if he can settle himself back down again. Oh, well done, little man - that only took 10 seconds! I think he knows to look for his water bottle - I wish I had a video monitor so I could watch at moments like this - such a Curious George!

We visited our favourite Naturopath doctor to have him checked out - this cough has been quite nasty since last week - everything is clear (ears, lungs, etc), but she reminded me to use Vicks on his feet at night and Castor Oil on his abdomen (to stimulate his digestive system which powers the immune system).

Tomorrow Nicholas and I are the presenters at a Baby Talk session (the same one we used to go to ourselves when he was new) to talk about using Sign Language with babies. He’s added “basketball” to his all-day conversation and even managed “I love you” the other day for the first time! I have tried to teach him the one-handed sign, but his fingers can’t get around it, so I tried the three-word sign instead - success. I’m so pleased that he can communicate so well, although I am noticing that he is dropping the signs to opt for the words sometimes (if he can say the word) - perhaps because other people in his life don’t do the sign language with him. When I prompt him to show me the sign, he always does, but spoken word is possibly starting to take over. I hope not because I would really like to keep up with learning ASL with him - I’ll have to make a real effort, because I’m sure it’s easy to get lazy once he’s speaking.

Sweet slumber

WOW - 2 nights in a row that he’s slept right through the night!  Can we go for three?  Granted, he went to bed late both nights (9:30-10pm - possibly because of the time Daylight Savings time change), but how amazing to sleep right through to 7:45am yesterday and 8:45am today!  In fact, this morning I woke up to hear him chatting away peacefully and happily to himself (or maybe the stuffed teddy) and drinking his water - no tears … no “maaaa-maaaa” … just peaceful joy.  JOY.  That’s the word he was described with by his music teacher … “he’s such a joyful child”.  He really does find joy in anything and everything.  What fun!

On a side note, I read an article tonight that reinforced for me that long-term breastfeeding is beneficial, especially to reduce the possibility of ADD as the breastmilk is full of fatty acids.

19 months

Wow, I can’t believe that I just typed that! He’s been 19 months old now for just over a week and I am continuously blown away by how quickly he’s growing and maturing.

Mr Independence wants to eat by himself (he is getting really good with the fork), walk without holding hands, and has a nasty habit of running away without stopping when we yell “stop” or “danger”. Very scary in a parking lot! He sees something he wants and off he goes, without paying any attention to anyone around him. Any suggestions on how to curb that particular activity are greatly appreciated!

Nicholas basically stopped growing at 9 months old when he was 30 inches and 25 lbs … until just this last month when he’s suddenly gained 2 inches and 3 lbs! For all my complaining about how quickly he was growing out of clothes in the first 9 months, he’s more than made up for it by wearing the same size (18-24 months) for the last 10 month and is now slowly moving into 2T (although they are still a bit long for him in the legs).

His sign language continues to develop well- it’s really amazing how his little brain files away information and spits it back out when he’s ready to use it. Yesterday, when I was strapping him into his car seat, he started wiggling his fingers at his mouth and making a funny sound. I didn’t quite get it at first, because it clearly wasn’t “food/eat”, but also wasn’t duck because he wasn’t saying “quack, quack”. I turned to look out the front window … and there was a telephone pole with 5 crows on it. He was signing “bird” and trying to say “tweet, tweet” for the first time! Yay!

The other really big moment yesterday was when he put 4 signs together in the correct order to make a full sentence (usually I have to guide him to get it right) - Mummy … please … want … milk. I was so excited!!!

I was really concerned last week that nursing was coming to an end (not by either of our choice) - he would be nursing and would look up at me with such sad little eyes, signing “milk, please” with great fervour, as though I could turn it on. It was very upsetting for both of us. Luckily I could switch him to the other side and he could manage enough to satisfy himself, but I was really worried that our nursing time was coming to an end. It may just have been my stress level that week (I had some huge deadlines for Feb 29th) or perhaps he was needing more than usual (he has been in this growth spurt, after all). Anyways, this week seems to be back to normal - once during the night (4-5am), once when he wakes up (7:30), and then about 4 times during the day.

He recently started spending one full day at daycare, so now he goes for 4.5 hrs on Tuesday and 8.5 hrs on Friday. He adapted to it without any hesitation or fuss. I am so blessed to know that he enjoys being there, because it allows me that time to properly focus on my work. In fact, when I tell him that’s where he’s going, he practically runs to the door and sits down to have his shoes and jacket put on.

We’ve just had Elaine, Angela, and Ewan to visit with us for a few days. Unfortunately, they were quite ill with a flu bug, but by the end of the visit they had perked up quite a bit and the kids were playing really well together. Nicholas was very taken with Ewan and kept giving him kisses … not always when we would have liked, though, like when he kept waking him up.

Which reminds me of an instance at Granville Island last weekend … we were walking around the market when Nicholas suddenly went running off toward a young child (4-5 yrs old), yelling “baseball … baseball”. He didn’t receive any response from the child, other than a look of “who are you and why are you yelling baseball at me?!?”, so he reached his arms out wide and gave him a great big hug! We were all so amazed … and quite a little crowd collected to watch the interaction - it was so pure and honest and sweet. The little boy moved along with his parents and Nicholas took off in another direction, but it was a wonderful moment firmly emblazoned in my memory. Since then, Nicholas has been giving out lots of hugs and kisses to kids he likes - thank goodness he’s moved out of the “I like you, so I’m hitting you on the head” phase.

No new teeth have erupted, but he loves having his teeth and tongue brushed.

I’m hoping to meet with an agent next week to talk about getting Nicholas into commercials/film/TV because he responds so well to the camera.  It’s a great way to put aside some money for his future education.  I am adamant, though, that I will NOT do it if he doesn’t enjoy it.  We’ll see what he thinks about it.

Cloth Diapers

I LOOOOVE the diapers we use … Motherease. Nicholas has used them since birth (they’re adjustable, so great for growing kids) and is still using them at 32 inches and 28 lbs (almost 20 months).

You can often find them used on Craigslist or in the Motherease forum (we got a full set, used, from my sister-in-law but did purchase some supplementary ones off Craigslist). You can also buy them at Discount Diapers in Point Grey (also known as K.G. Kid’s) for the same price as online (avoid shipping cost and time). Motherease has a great introductory offer if you want to try them out first.

We have mostly used the One Size diapers, but if you find the Sandy’s diapers, they’re good, too. We’ve used both the Air Flow and Rikki’s Wrap covers and like them both. The Stay-Dry liners are great for those times you know she’ll be in them for a little longer, as it pulls the moisture away from your little one’s skin (it’s made of a wick-away material, like the shirts worn by runners), although it’s polyester, not cotton, so maybe better to try one before you commit to buying too many.

Lost wedding ring

On the flight home from California, it appears that I lost my wedding ring. The craziest part of it all was that I had a “moment” when I was washing my hands just before boarding the plane where I looked down at the sink and thought, “oh, that’s clever - they have a grate to catch any rings that fall off” and I remember thinking about my wedding ring. What I don’t remember is if it was actually on my finger or if it wasn’t but I didn’t fully acknowledge it. Kind of a foreshadowing, wouldn’t you say?!?

Anyways, I realized it was gone a few hours later, after we were back in Canada and far away from the airport. So now I have to rely on honest people and efficient lost-and-found staff to help bring this precious item home to me. On the off-chance that someone out there happens to find it and read this post, I would be forever grateful if you could contact me and send my ring home. I know it’s just a token, but I love having a ring that matches my husband’s and the sentiment that it carries is very important to me!

Please cross your fingers for me … and also so your own rings don’t fly off unexpectedly.

TV Star

Both his sign language and verbal language or coming along quite nicely - he’s up to 28 signs and even has a few words. I’m still fascinated by watching which language he chooses for different words - I think he chooses the easiest option. Back in November, Nicholas auditioned to be on a baby sign language DVD - he did really well, but the shoot date for the DVD is on hold. The day of the audition, though, CBC came out to interview the kids and parents about the benefits of signing with babies/toddlers for a segment on their show, Living Vancouver. Nicholas and I both appear in the segment, if you want to have a look. We’ve also been asked to present at a Baby Talk session for new parents. What fun!

Watching Nicholas learn the sign language is so much fun! A good friend made a good point, though, about something that I’m starting to have to deal with … while I understand his signs, most people in his life do not. It’s fun to watch other kids copying him when they realize how effective it is, but then their parents have no idea what their kids are asking for. The same thing is happening with the Spanish, too.

When we were at a playgroup today, he saw some kids sitting at a table with their snacks. He ran over to them and stood there rubbing his chest frantically … asking “PLEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!” It was so cute, but I felt sorry for him that they didn’t understand him.  Thankfully, I was watching, so was able to swoop in and offer him some of his own snacks.

The huge benefits of the sign language are really starting to show now as his little brain wants to start communicating so many different thoughts and ideas.   No matter how many food signs we learn, though, I think “cheese” will still be his favourite request.  Oh, and “pez” (goldfish crackers).

Good nights!

Well, the sleeping pattern has continued to be fantastic. Patrick can even put Nicholas down with little to no crying at all most nights by about 8:30 and he doesn’t wake up to nurse until about 5 or 6.  At that point, Patrick brings him into our bed and starts getting ready for work (he’s out the door by 7am).  It’s wonderful to finally be getting some nice solid sleep!  Oh, and his daytime naps are turning into 2-3 hours at a time, which is making it much easier for me to get some good focused work done.