The good, the bad, and the spituppy

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August 22, 2012 by Caroline Mincks

The good: Ethan is officially able to roll belly-to-back and back-to-belly without it being a big dramatic thing.

The bad: Now that he can do this, he has a habit of logrolling his way across the living room floor. I set him down for about ninety seconds to refill my coffee cup and found that he had rolled about 10 feet from his original position.

The spituppy: I really need to remember to wait longer after bottles before putting Ethan on his belly, because that’s a really big mess on my carpet now.

Life has been particularly busy lately – Adam is working almost every day and his hours are all over the place, I’ve been working to try and re-organize a lot of the apartment so that we can begin the process of decorating Ethan’s room, and, obviously, we’re raising an infant in the process of all this. It’s a lot to take on! Now that Ethan has started to be so much more mobile, I’m starting to realize what a freaking deathtrap this apartment might be for a baby. We have a lot to baby-proof before he starts crawling.

In addition, we were having a LOT of trouble getting Ethan to sleep lately. We had been dealing with some difficulties in the bedtime department for several weeks, but lately it has become a real challenge. I am not a fan of crying it out when children are this young, but we needed to do something. Anything. We were exhausted and frustrated, and Ethan always seemed so sleepy. A few friends suggested – and swore by – Sleepeasy. I was very hesitant for a while because it didn’t seem necessary…but then Ethan figured out how to turn onto his belly in his crib. And it was all over. No matter what I did, he would get himself turned over and around and in all manner of positions that made him upset. I kept trying to fix it as soon as he got upset, hoping he would calm down and fall asleep, but it never worked. Finally, I gave in. The other night, I put him down in his crib when he was calm and slightly drowsy, gave him his pacifier and lovey, turned on his white noise…and walked out of the room. For five whole minutes.

It was so hard to hear him get so frustrated and upset, but as soon as those five minutes were up, I ran to him as quickly as I could. I gave him his paci, sang to him, and made sure he had his lovey…and then left again. It was so difficult, but it only took him three more minutes to figure out how to get comfortable and calm down. Only three more minutes after that and he was fast asleep. I know that it’s controversial to let a baby cry at bedtime, but I wanted him to have a few minutes to figure out what he needed. It was obviously something I wasn’t trying, and if he had continued to be upset for much longer, I would have stopped. We got incredibly lucky because for the past few nights, he has gone to sleep quickly, easily, and in a position that he finds the most comfortable. He is still waking up once or twice a night (and used to completely sleep through the night), but hopefully that will phase out soon.

Also, Ethan has started eating everyone’s noses on a regular basis.