Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The things you worry about and the things you don't

I've been a mother for almost 6 years now.  We knew we'd have one kid, and taking a cue from my friends with 2 kids I decided to actively skip the worried-all-the-time phase that first time moms go through and skip right to the relaxed-second-kid phase.  Mixed results.

One thing I don't need to worry about with M is eating.  He's a great eater, tries new things and has plenty of foods from all food groups that he will readily choose.  Plus, this list is expanding by the day.  When he was about 3 weeks old we finally trounced a rocky start and got him on the right track with breastfeeding. At age 4 he went through a picky phase which was combatted by my insistence that we don't comment on food, a refusal to make him special meals and a little brainwashing that he was a great lover of new foods.  Since then, smooth sailing.

Sleep has been another issue altogether, but lately he has been showing more independence with sleep.  Until very recently we laid down with him to go to sleep.  Bedtime was always a very vulnerable time which made having a babysitter very difficult.  A few months ago we decided to start the "Sleep Lady Shuffle" to get M to sleep on his own.  Within a few days we were sitting in the doorway of his room.  To our great shock, after a conversation about sleepovers ("the other kid's parents aren't going to shush you to sleep") and a visit to the homeopath, he asked us to sit on the couch outside his room, then a couple of days later asked us to keep his door shut (I think the light was bothering him).  Now he asks us to leave a self-serve breakfast out on weekend mornings and last night he couldn't wait for his sitter to turn up--and she was scheduled to put him to bed!  I feel like he has made more sleep progress in the past 5 weeks than he has in the past 5 years combined.




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