Arsenal
Most night Jasper is fairly tractable about bedtime. I nurse him, he goes off to bed with his dad after some trotting back and forth to kiss me and close doors -- it's a complicated but short routine. Then some songs and some walking and soothing, and he's out.
Every once in a while, this turns into an hour of Jasper jabbering at toph and refusing to calm down. After several nights of this, we decided that if he wasn't ready to go to sleep, he could just play in his crib for a while. This translates to "let him cry for 10 minutes before we go in and comfort him." 10 minutes is about all any of us can take, but toph and I are mean parents with hearts of steel, and letting him fuss for a few minutes is ok if it gives him the idea that we are serious about bedtime. Some nights he just alternates a minute of playing with his bear and blanket, drinking water, and fussing, and doesn't really turn on the serious waterworks. Other nights, he just sobs to let us know how mean we are to such a sweet little baby.
Tonight he pulled out all the stops though. He was very nearly out. toph was ready to lay him down in bed, when he popped his head back up and started chattering cutely again, showing no signs of being tired. I could hear all of this over the monitor, and I figured that toph is going to put him down. Jasper immediately started wailing, but instead of just crying, he was crying out to us. Somehow this was much worse than outright sobbing. He's been doing intermittent "mama, mama" between sobs for a few weeks now. Tonight, it turned into Mama, peas. Mama, peas. Peas, mama, peas! Dada! Mama! Down! Up! Out, peas! Down! Up! Up peas! Mama! Dada! Mama! Peas! As if he were trying every word he knew, in every combination, searching for something that would magically make us come back. It was all I could do not to run in there immediately, but I let him fuss for the allotted 10 minutes. He calmed down immediately once I went in, and soon was asking toph for "spider" which means he wants his itsy bitsy spider song/story. This is generally the last thing they do before he just falls asleep, and now I haven't heard anything in several minutes. I am hopeful that he is really falling asleep this time.
Still, tell me again why we are trying to teach him words if he is just going to use them against us?
Update: Of course I spoke too soon. He is jabbering again, just chortling away, and clearly not falling asleep.
Every once in a while, this turns into an hour of Jasper jabbering at toph and refusing to calm down. After several nights of this, we decided that if he wasn't ready to go to sleep, he could just play in his crib for a while. This translates to "let him cry for 10 minutes before we go in and comfort him." 10 minutes is about all any of us can take, but toph and I are mean parents with hearts of steel, and letting him fuss for a few minutes is ok if it gives him the idea that we are serious about bedtime. Some nights he just alternates a minute of playing with his bear and blanket, drinking water, and fussing, and doesn't really turn on the serious waterworks. Other nights, he just sobs to let us know how mean we are to such a sweet little baby.
Tonight he pulled out all the stops though. He was very nearly out. toph was ready to lay him down in bed, when he popped his head back up and started chattering cutely again, showing no signs of being tired. I could hear all of this over the monitor, and I figured that toph is going to put him down. Jasper immediately started wailing, but instead of just crying, he was crying out to us. Somehow this was much worse than outright sobbing. He's been doing intermittent "mama, mama" between sobs for a few weeks now. Tonight, it turned into Mama, peas. Mama, peas. Peas, mama, peas! Dada! Mama! Down! Up! Out, peas! Down! Up! Up peas! Mama! Dada! Mama! Peas! As if he were trying every word he knew, in every combination, searching for something that would magically make us come back. It was all I could do not to run in there immediately, but I let him fuss for the allotted 10 minutes. He calmed down immediately once I went in, and soon was asking toph for "spider" which means he wants his itsy bitsy spider song/story. This is generally the last thing they do before he just falls asleep, and now I haven't heard anything in several minutes. I am hopeful that he is really falling asleep this time.
Still, tell me again why we are trying to teach him words if he is just going to use them against us?
Update: Of course I spoke too soon. He is jabbering again, just chortling away, and clearly not falling asleep.