May 24, 2009

Today, I was giving Alec and Evan some tastes of our chocolate cake frosting (naughty I know) and when I put some in Alec's mouth with my finger, I SWORE I felt something. So, I got another dab of chocolate to entice him to allow me to poke my finger back in, and sure enough...a hard little tooth...let me correct that...TWO hard little teeth! I KNOW they were not there yesterday, so TWO teeth in ONE night. Wow. WOW! Now THAT explains his fussiness at times, but it really was not bad. We THOUGHT they might be teething, but weren't sure! Sure enough...two little teeth!

Alec has also learned another little trick. I was changing his diaper tonight and he arched his back to reach for something and I straightened him out, and shook my had and said "No no no Alec" and he smiled his cute little open mouth grin and shook HIS head back and forth. Then each time I told him no no no, he shook his little head back and forth. Cutie pie.

His second little trick is now when he coughed today, I said, "Ohhhh my" and he coughed again. We played this little game several times...cute smart little guy.

We've also learned that Alec is definately his Daddy's mini-me. When Curt leaves the room he pouts and cries. It's actually pretty cute.

And sweet little Evan....Did you know that the meaning of the name Evan means "Young Warrier"?

Evan is the sweetest, easiest, happiest baby. So damn content ALL day long. Really. He's lovely. Easy...squish. Love him.

That is....until naptime or bedtime. Then Evan the warrier comes out. He cries. He screams, he thrashes around in bed. He lets everyone know that he is pissed and really didn't ever want to or need to sleep. Boy do I need some help. Both of my other kids were easy...put their nuk in, put them in bed and viola. They'd sleep. Evan on the other hand...

Here are the facts on Evan:
-Does not take a nuk. Never did. Doesn't like them.
-Cries for 9/10 naps. Bellers. He's mad. He will SOMETIMES whine for a while, then fall asleep. That is a GREAT nap. Other times he screams as if someone is cutting off his toes, one by one.
-He cries. Loud. Long.
-Rocking him to sleep is not an option. #1 he isn't always comforted by rocking and #2 I'm not interested in starting that habit.

I usually let him cry. We have gone in after about 20 minutes of crying to pat and shush him, but he gets MORE pissed. As if to say, "I see you MOTHER....get me the HELL up." Let's just say it's NOT calming for either Curt or I to go in and try to comfort him. It doesn't happen.

We've tried just letting him cry, not going in. 1 night before bed it took 45 minutes. Not terrible. One night, in the middle of the night (he usually does NOT wake in the middle of the night) he cried 1 hr 25 minutes, and after that, Curt and I couldn't stand it anymore, and got him up.

We HAVE been just letting him cry a half hourish, and if he won't settle, we get him up for 15 min, then put him back down. SOMETIMES he'll go down after that...sometimes same old screaming. It's maddening.

I am sure we're making it worse. Trying CIO, getting him up, laying him back down, patting, not patting. But damn. I don't know WHAT I should be doing.

We're tired of his screaming at bed/naps. We just want him to GO to sleep.

SO maddening.

Any ideas? I'm game for anything. He's a fighter. He'll be one stubborn child...I see it coming already.