Cribthumping

We used to have a routine. Baby would go to bed at 9 or 10 and we'd hear him jumping in his crib by 5 or 6 the next morning. At that time I'd go get him and bring him back to the bed where the wife would feed him and he'd fall back asleep. Earlier this week we decided to cut out the morning feeding and replace it with a bottle. That was a horrible decision.

Now he wakes up at 3 and jumps in his crib until someone goes in there. So for the last few nights I've been in there with a bottle trying to get him back to sleep. Last night (early this morning), I realized that's not the right approach - I shouldn't be feeding him that early, I should be encouraging him to go back to sleep. Additionally, we can't have him jumping in the crib at 3 in the morning - we've got neighbors who would probably like some sleep.

So I started something new - Cribthumping

I knock him down

He gets back up again

I'm never going to keep him down

(repeat for a long time)

Basically when he jumped in the crib I knocked him down and he'd cry... until he got back up again. This went on and on until the wife came in and rescued him and sent me back to bed.

Personal Space

Baby and I are having some personal space issues. Allow me to cite two examples:

1 - Baby usually wakes up around 6 or 7 in the morning and I bring him back to the bed for breakfast. After the wife finishes feeding him, we are both too exhausted to take him back to the crib, so we allow him to sleep between us. "Between us" usually turns into "underneath me." The kid always ends up on my side of the bed, no matter where he starts. The wife says it's because I weigh more than her, so he just naturally falls into me. I think she's secretly pushing him to my side.

2 - Last night I was using the restroom (#1) with the door open (wife's pet peeve) when all of a sudden I hear baby heading my way. So I'm standing there, doing my thing, when baby crawls between my legs and lifts himself up on the lid of the toilet bowl and starts looking in. He must've been fascinated by the bubbles. Well this is a pretty awkward situation for me, as I'm coming to the end of my flow, and trying desperately not to pee all over my firstborn's head. With a few deft maneuvers, I was able to wrap things up mostly without incident. I think I may have inadvertently sprinkled him a little, but he's doing fine today. I guess I should listen to my wife and close the door. Or get a urinal.

Sleep

So this morning baby woke up crying at 4:24 am. Wife says that we no longer go in to his room once he's down, so we both get to hear him cry for a while. Then in between his cries, we hear another baby crying. Baby #2 lives in the room above our baby, and is freaking out. We wonder if our baby woke him up, or if baby #2 woke ours up. The world may never know - it's basically a chicken and the egg scenario.

As I've mentioned, we live in an apartment complex, so I am not 100% comfortable letting our child "cry it out" in the middle of the night. For this reason we have started playing white noise really loudly in baby's room when he's crying himself to sleep. We're hoping this white noise will drown out baby's cries so our neighbors will only be able to hear really loud nothingness. The iPod we use for the white noise only has sleep timer settings of 15, 30, and 60 minutes. I chose 60 minutes two nights ago and was scolded for doing so. This morning I chose 30 minutes and started the white noise around 5:10 am once it was pretty evident that baby was going to be crying for a while.

We've established 6 am as baby's earliest allowable wake up time. Basically I am not allowed to go get him and bring him in for breakfast until 6 am at the earliest. I thought though, that if he was still crying at 5:40 when the sleep timer shut down the white noise, that we could make an exception and bring him in a few minutes early (since by then he'd been crying for 1.5 hours). Wife said no - not a moment before 6.

So 5:40 comes, the white noise stops, the baby keeps crying, and I start counting the minutes. If the baby makes one peep after 6 am, I'm home free - I can bring him in, wife will feed him, and I can escape to the couch where I'll start my workday. Then baby will inevitably fall asleep in my spot on the bed and wife can get a few more hours of sleep until she has to leave for work.

5:45 comes: still crying.
5:50: intermittent sobs.
5:57: a couple random noises.
5:59: a strange gurgling sound.
6 am: silence.

The punk kid fell asleep in the dwindling seconds before his liberation. He was so close to freedom, and he could not pull it out. I guess he doesn't care that much, since he's sleeping again, but still - it's kind of annoying.

Baby Today (More Poop)

Baby is currently sitting in his Bumbo on the floor watching Law & Order with me. It's OK - I distract him during the bad parts. It had been a day or two since his last poop, so when I smelled something nasty after lunch, I dutifully took him to the back room and changed him. It was dark orange and the consistency of tomato paste, but not very voluminous. Now he's clenching his fists and grunting and his face is all red. I think I may have changed him too soon.

[2 minutes later]

He's falling asleep in his Bumbo. His head is bobbing back and forth. It will slowly fall forward as he dozes off, and then when his chin hits his chest, he'll snap awake for a second. He must be tired after all that grunting. I should put him in his crib.

[5 minutes later]

Oh I had definitely changed him too soon. This time it was a mullet diaper (normal in the front, party in the back). More orange tomato paste that smells awful. The diapers are in a bag hanging on the front door and I can still smell the poop as strongly as if I had wiped it under my nose. Once I changed him, I put him down for a nap.

Speaking of sleep, baby has not been sleeping very well at night lately and last night was no exception. I feel badly for our neighbors in the apartments below and above us, who had to hear him scream for hours last night. Well, not too badly for the upstairs neighbors. She just started her exercise routine and is very noisily jumping around up there (at least I hope that's what it is). If the ceiling squeaks at every footstep, you can imagine how loud jumping is; our light fixtures literally shake. Ah the joys of living in an apartment.

I think the things I'll enjoy most about a house are:
- No neighbors living so close I can hear their every move
- A garage to put stuff that I don't want to keep in my house
- A washer and dryer
- A fridge with an ice maker