More Steps

A couple of days ago, on daddy's Big birthday, Klaudia decided to ... get independent and start walking. First she discovered that it's easy to move from the coffee table to the TV stand at home, and then at daddy's office, she walked from one corner of the room to the other, as if she was doing it for a long time now. What a great birthday gift!

First Steps

As mentioned earlier, K has been pretty good at walking when holding on to someone or something. But for a while now, we've been waiting for those magic first steps that she would make on her own. Well, she made them yesterday - on the day when she turned 13 months!!!

I can't provide too many details on how she did that, since ... I wasn't there. Yes, she decided to wait all day long until I (the food provider, her caregiver, the person who spends most of the day with her) left for my evening classes. I have a feeling she is paying me back for the CIO.

PS. I may be sad that I missed such an important milestone, but I'm very happy that it was Len who got to witness it.

What Does a Cow Say? Polish Version

Becoming Mobile

At 12 months, 4 weeks and 1 day K is still not crawling or walking. Well, she is a good walker or runner when holding on to someone or something but once let loose, she freezes.

We've been letting her "go" a lot lately trying to see if she is ready for her first steps, but no luck. She just stands there (for as long as we let her which is a huge improvement - she would fall as soon as she was on her own before). She stands there in the position she was left - completely frozen. Sometimes one hand is up the other is down, sometimes both arms are spread aside or forward.

However lately, K has been slowly and secretly moving from one place to another. Here she is at the beginning of her new skill.



Today she is much faster and easily moves from one room to another. Finally, we've got a reason to childproof our place. Yay!!!

New Milestones

K's recent "sleeping disorder" could be associated with her new discoveries.

Right after she turned one, she stared flipping and sleeping on her belly. Until then she had slept only on her back or her side (looking like a little bug), but more and more we find her sleeping on her belly.

Her most recent thing is sitting and standing up in her crib. Before, when she had woken up, she'd be laying in her crib until we came to get her. Now, she welcomes us either sitting, standing or even running in circles in her crib (she gets extremely excited when she knows we're coming to get her).

Because of her new milestones, it's been more and more difficult to put her down for a nap. So far we had been putting her down, leaving the room, and K was out within a minute. Now, she loves sitting up or standing up throwing her pacifier on the floor and seeing how long it'll take us to come and get it for her.

Thank goodness she still naps twice a day for at least an hour each time.

1 Year Wellness Appointment

K and I saw our favorite nurse practitioner, Nancy, for our wellness appointment the other day. Since our last appointment 4 months ago, K has gained only a bit over a pound and didn't grow much either. The nurse wasn't concerned. I guess I have to get used to the idea that K will not ALWAYS be growing with the speed she used to.

Heightwise K is at the 75th percentile, weightwise at 50th, and her head is still off the chart.

CIO

I did it. Because of exhaustion and desperation, I used the CRY IT OUT method to help K and us sleep through the night. So far so good.

Before going into details, I'd like to explain that I'm against the method. If K wasn't cooperating, I'd never let her cry for (let's say) too long. But 2 days ago after having had to get up almost every hour for a few nights, I got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore and at the same time be functional during the day (I started working a couple of weeks ago and am teaching a few hours 5 days a week).

So, after talking to some friends who have done IT, I decided it was time. And yes, I said "I"; Len was skeptical, but since he's not the one who gets up at night, we agreed it would be best for him to sleep in another room and let IT happen.

The goal was to let K cry for 10 minutes, then if she didn't stop on her won, I'd go to nurse her. My hope was that she would stop crying and fall asleep before my getting up. It worked!!! The most important part of it is that K never cried for longer than a minute. I was ready for changes, but I was afraid of those 10 minutes. Thank goodness, I didn't have to face them.

We've done only 2 nights so far, and within that time I nursed only twice at night. K keeps waking up every 2 hours or so , but after 20 seconds of fussing falls back to sleep. The first night I "ignored" her (oh, this sounds HORRIBLE) about 5 times, last night only twice. Supposedly this method takes a week for babies to learn to sleep through the night.

I'm planning on getting up twice every night to nurse unless K doesn't wake up at night at all. I want to continue nursing as long as I can and as long as K needs it even if it's at night. Getting up twice every night sounds perfectly doable to me. Even though it's been only two nights, I'm feeling alive again. I have much more energy during the day, and everything seems to make sense again.

I felt guilty for not responding to my baby's cry, and after the first night, I was afraid to look straight into K's eyes thinking: Is she going to hate me for this? Not only did K sleep until 9am for two nights in a row, but she's been welcoming me with a big smile in the morning. I'm thinking she either forgot what happened at night, or she appreciates it.

UPDATE on the 3rd night:

K woke up only twice last night. After nursing she went back to sleep and didn't get up until 9am this morning. CIO definitely works for us!!!

Night 4: K was fed at midnight; then she woke up a few times between 3-4 but was ignored. She got fed at 4 and slept 'til 8 in the morning.

Night 5: K was fed at midnight. She woke up at around 3 fell back asleep and slept until 7!

Night 6: It's been the worst night so far (since starting the CIO). After eating at midnight, K woke up 3 times between 2-3 am and cried for 5 minutes each time. This time she actually shed some tears, and it was the hardest thing not to respond to her cry. After 5 minutes of crying she fell back asleep to be awaken in about 20 minutes. The whole thing left me awake for another hour where I couldn't stop thinking "is it worth it?" After falling asleep at 3, she didn't wake up until 6am to be fed and then at 8 to get up.

Night 7: This is it - the last night of training. K reached her goal. She woke up at midnight and at 4 to be fed and fell back asleep. We both woke up at 8 - rested and happy.