The Latest on the Bodester
Bode has a cold. Well he's getting over a cold I should say. Sunday night he woke up at 12:30am and was crying hysterically. I went in nursed him and put him back down, but instead of rolling over and drifting off (like he usually does) he sat up and started screaming again. So I tried again with the same result. Sometimes he does that and it just means he wants to be held longer. So I held him about 10 mins more but no go. So then I brought him to our bed, which we all know by now does not work for Bode. But I tried anyways. Of course he acts like he wants to fall asleep but tosses and turns and continually sits up and then throws himself back and forth between laying on top of me and nursing or just laying on top of Dan. So after a while of that, Dan tried to put him down- no go. Then we both tried - same result. Dan noticed he seemed stuffy so we had him blow his nose, which helped a little. Then we brought him back to our bed. Then I tried again in his room and then finally Dan put him down in his crib and he fell asleep at 3:30am. Then was back up a 6:30am.
This is so not normal. Since Bode was about 14 months, he's been sleeping pretty regularly besides 1 middle of the night wake up to nurse session maybe 2 or 3 times a week. Otherwise I can't complain. As a toddler he's been a great sleeper and doesn't fight it at all. He'll even "tell" us he needs a nap sometimes. In the morning we saw his nose was running like faucet though. So that was the culprit. He sleeps awful when he's stuffy or sick. So Mon night I gave him some honey/water/lemon mixture, kept him in the bathroom with a steamy hot shower running, gave him a chest and back massage with baby vapo rub, ran his humidfier, and put some padding under his crib sheet to elevate his head. He's slept through Mon and last night with this routine. He's still a little stuffy but much better. Also, he's been like a sponge and is learning things so quickly lately. I taught him how to cover his mouth when he coughs and he's doing it pretty consistently already.
Bode is picking up signs like no ones business lately. I'll teach him a sign once and then a week later I'll say the word or ask him to say it and he'll sign it to me. He's not doing so hot on the speech front though. He's really not saying any words regulary. I mean he'll try to say a word and maybe be pretty close, but then won't ever say it again. And there is no consistency at all. He was saying kitty but pretty much stopped. He's saying car and go now. He used to say up or rather "bup" and stopped saying that. too. Even if you ask him to say it, he won't. He also used to say ball and now instead will say "ga" for ball. It's kind of weird. In fact I've noticed that he went through a period when he said a lot of "Ba" and b sounds and now he won't say any b sounds. I'll ask him, "Bode, say Ba?" and I get a distinct "Ga". I do hear a lot of "Ga" and g sounds though now.
He knows animal sounds but he improvises them. Like he says moo for a cow, but it's actually "mmm" he keeps his mouth closed and just changes the pitch to make it sound like the "oo" part. He'll squeal a particular way to say "meow" and squeal a different way to get a "woof". He makes a growling sound for bears, dinosaurs and lions. He even has a little sound he makes for monkeys. It's more of an "eeh,eeh" than a "oo,oo" though.
I've finally put in a call to early intervention for an evaluation. I mean he's almost 20 months and really doesn't talk or say any words. Aren't most 20 month olds supposed to have at least a few words that they use regularly, if not already starting to string a few together?
He understands everything that's going on. It surprises me the words he "knows" sometimes and how fast he picks up on things. We have these picture books like a My First Words/Vocab series. They're nice big board books and his fav thing to do is plop down in our laps and we ask him where "X" is and he'll point it right out. Sometimes he'll go hunting around the house for the actual item if he knows we have it. Like a banana or a hammer for instance.
Yesterday, I went out for Pizza with some friends. We were in the bar area sitting at a table. The restaruant was hoping. I mean noisy and busy. I was telling a story about how Bode used to scream during bath time...and as soon as I say scream, Bode stops what he's doing and screams at the top of his lungs one very loud scream. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stopped and the place was so quiet with all eyes on him for a second. Then everyone kind of broke out in laughter as the table next to us cracked a light joke about it. It was pretty crazy. I really have to watch what I say around the kid even if he's not yet "repeating" it.