Creepster

Jett is officially mobile now, if only in a rather inefficient, inconsistent sort of way. You can put him on one side of the mat and sit on the other with a favored toy and he will wiggle, roll and creep over to you. It's fantastic to watch him develop like this - I'm thoroughly fascinated and impressed! On this mobility front, he's got his knees tucked under him and he can get up on his forearms and can even do both together, but he relies too much on one side's strength and ends up rolling over quite frequently as he only pushes off with one side. His most effective move is the boot camp crawl - like I've seen in combat movies, he relies solely on his forearms to propel himself forward and drags his legs behind (as if dodging bullets overhead). Nanny Jamie actually thought he was about to crawl earlier this week and was panicking that she didn't have her phone nearby to document the momentous occasion :) So while we're super excited that he's on the verge of some major moving, we're now tasked with reassessing our house layout, our furniture selections, our time management to ensure adequate supervision for this wee one when he formally discovers crawling...

Jett is also eating well. He's come to anticipate the feeding routine and his mouth pops open the moment you stick him in the highchair; he's rather impatient... We've done peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, bananas and blueberries (some pureed in combos). So far, everything has been happily digested, save for peas. I'm curious to see how he tolerates other green veggies, since we've only tried the one so far...next up is broccoli, cauliflower, avocado and maybe peaches. Not that I deserve it with as picky as I am, but it would be wonderful to have a non-discriminating eater for a child. We'll see!

I don't even want to mention this for fear of jinxing myself as I did the last time I mentioned it, but...Jett has been somewhat predictable with his sleep patterns - at least THIS week. Last week was another story. I ended up calling quite a few people to vent about being a mom to a non-sleeping child and even ended up in a counselor's chair because I just felt so out of control with frustration/rage/depression/you-name-it. For one reason or another, his actions last week served as the straw that broke the camel's back. Jett didn't sleep well at all two weekends ago and last Monday and Tuesday were especially rough - he was up every single hour between 7 pm and 2 am one night and 4 times the other. And fussy and difficult while awake. It was just rough, and especially so because we'd thought we'd gotten to a much better place - at least to where he'd wake up only a few times - NOT seven. It was as though he were 3 months old again...but he's six months and we were looking forward to some of the "sleep maturity" this age is supposed to bring. "Sleep maturity" for us means he's old enough now to "cry it out" without fear of breaking that special trust bond or whatever the books say is the reason we can't do this earlier. And honestly, I don't feel all that guilty listening to him cry - I mean, it does work. He never cries for too long (25-30 minutes at most) and he does put himself to sleep and it spares us from getting frustrated while he's 100% awake in our arms enjoying the extra 1 am attention when he should be learning to sleep....I started to write two blog entries on last week's events and emotions and I sound crazy and weak and whiny and I've decided to mention it in this one paragraph and move on!

Anyway, we're in a much better spot this week as he's going to bed pretty easily and we've got the tear-free routine down. He did wake up last night around 11 after going down at 7:30, and was rather up and alert. And we let him cry, because it was bedtime and our brief intervention attempts proved worthless. But it's hard to let him cry it out at night to go back to sleep because he's right next to our bedroom and we're not gaining any sleep time back by not personally attending to him and we're BOTH kept awake for the 30-60 minute period (he falls asleep for a little while, then wakes, cries, and starts over...) and Kenny's got to get up before dawn so I just hope he doesn't wake more frequently and that these occurrences are rare. He did wake up again at 4 am to eat (he wakes either at 1 or 4 - this week at least - to eat) but the feedings are quick and painless and I can do them half asleep anyway.

So the sleep thing is a mixed bag. I'm trying to be more pessimistic; if I start to think we're making strides on this front, fate tries to spite us I think and that's when Jett slumbers very little. But I'm a pretty happy, if naive optimist by nature and it's hard to consider (or rather, expect) that Jett's sleep schedule will alternate weekly between hell-on-earth and wonderful. The level of flexibility this job requires...it's rough!!

But things are good this week and he's a sweetheart (when not sleep-deprived) and I adore him. He's so sweet when he lays on my chest and tries to eat my nose with his gummy, smiling, slimy little mouth and when he's so happy to see me when I get home from work and it's really good being a mom sometimes :)