Our Day Adjusts

What a tough week this has been with Shaun. Near the end of last week I was struggling to get him to nurse at each feeding; he was really distracted and just didn't seem hungry. And he was refusing to go down for his third nap too. But I was finding that he couldn't last all the way to bedtime and I was putting him to bed at 7:00 or shortly after. So on Tuesday this week Craig and I started Shaun on a 4 hour schedule.
But here's the problem: Shaun still wasn't hungry when mealtime came and he still wanted to go to bed before 8:00. He was so miserable all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday morning we were at Donna's house and Thursday morning we went to Lisa's and stayed for lunch. I am amazed at how much Shaun relies on his schedule to function. It's like he loves how predictable his day is when he's on a routine and gets miserable and cranky when he doesn't know what's coming next. I don't know how people do it demand feeding. Even Melissa, because Bailey just catnaps all day. She must go bananas!!
So anyway, Craig and I talked and decided to do a bunch of things:

1. Start feeding Shaun less solids at each meal so he'll take more breastmilk.
2. Make the solids he does get have more fibre in them (we think he's a little constipated).
3. Go back to 3 1/2 hours but reduce his naps to 1 1/2 hours so that he'll still go down for a third nap.

Well, it's been 3 days (Friday, Saturday and today) and Shaun's back to normal. He's been getting less solids and is taking more breastmilk and is even having a third nap again. It took some experimenting but we finally found what works. His bedtime is 8:30.

Shaun's doing some really cute things now too! When he's sleeping at night he won't stay lengthwise in the crip; he always turns so his head is jammed between the siderails. He won't be able to do that much longer though because he's getting too long to fit! When we check on him before going to bed his legs are all cramped up. But it must be cozy because he does it every night. Another thing he's done a couple times now is give kisses. It's not all the time but if Shaun's in the right mood when you go in with a pucker he'll hold his mouth open and lean forward to kiss you. You'll end up getting your pucker right inside his mouth, and getting spitty too but it's so cute and Shaun loves it!

There's one more thing that Shaun's started doing in the past 3 or 4 days. I call it his "lizard tongue". Out of the blue he'll poke his tongue out of his mouth and make it all skinny and pointy. The funniest thing about it is that he holds it there! Sometimes for a whole minute, just looking around. He must know it's cute! And when we're holding his hands to help him walk, he sticks his tongue out and breathes big, spitty breaths. It sounds so funny and looks hilarious. Craig and I just laugh. What a clown!

Oh! And I almost forgot! Shaun says "ma-ma" now. He said it for the first time on Wednesday while I was changing him and now he says it all the time. It's funny: when Shaun would be upset before and cry "da-da" I didn't have a problem saying no. But now, it's so much harder to let him cry if he's saying "ma-ma". Especially if he's looking at me! He's definitely learning how to get what he wants.

Shaun loves to walk too, assisted of course! He holds onto our index fingers and just motors. On Thursday and Friday he walked all the way to the mailboxes and back - I couldn't believe it! He gets so excited and then there's that lizard tongue... I'm laughing just thinking about it!

Kitty and Pokey are getting much better with Shaun now. Kitty actually comes into his room in the morning and before bed and sits on the footstool while I'm nursing him. She'll flip her tail around and he plays with it. And Pokey teases Shaun so much! Especially when he's playing on the floor. She sits just out of his reach and taunts him by stretching and rolling or flicking her tail. What a bunch we have here!