Breakthrough!
Desi signed!!! Yay! Last night, our internet was on the fritz and I've been waiting and waiting to tell the internet and good thing Daddy came home. He fixed the internet and now I can tell you all.
Desi signed!
I've been making hand gestures at her since he day she turned six months. Waiting and waiting and waiting for her to wrap her head around the idea that "signing gets you what you want." Since she became an expert at Bye Bye, Beautiful Eyes and Clap Clap, I kept thinking, any day now. She'll sign deliberately. Like, maybe today. Or today. Or maybe today.
Well, last night, both girls and I were watching Bunnytown while waiting for dinner to be served. And Desi had been restless all day. She wasn't able to nap because we spent the afternoon drowning in a mountain of pink frills reorganizing the closet that the girls share. Lia was watching, dancing and singing along with the show and Desi was rolling around climbing the headboard and randomly yelling frustratedly. Until suddenly, she gives me her signature Desi frown, extends her hand at me and squeezes it two times. That's the sign for milk. And I was all, Dede? Dede? You want to make dede? SURE! Even if we were set to have dinner in ten minutes, I quickly lay her across my lap to nurse. I was so happy!
She signed it again to ask for water during dinner. Which is ok. It means she thinks the gesture means "drink" instead of "milk." And she did it again to me that evening after dinner when I signed and asked her "Dede?" She signed it back to me. And we nursed. And she fell asleep. YAY!
Not only that, she slept ALL NIGHT! Didn't even wake when Daddy arrived from the airport. She slept from 8:30ish to 6:00AM non stop! Wow! All those sleepless nights paid off.
You see, the last eight nights have been an ascent from hell into the world of... well, tolerable heat. But I knew fluffy clouds and angels are in sight when the first time I woke up this morning and my watch pointed to 6AM rather than the usual 2. Mike had a series of out of town work trips these past couple of weeks and I took it as an opportunity to sleep train Desi. That is to say, to teach her to fall asleep without needing a boob in her mouth. How did I do that, you ask? The hard way. I'd put her to sleep and then refuse to nurse until sunrise. The first two nights, as you can imagine, gave me eye-bags under eye-luggage. No sleeping at all with a baby that not only cries every five minutes into the wee hours, but sits up, half crawls and then flings her body and very hard skull into my face. Twice I thought I'd wake up with a black eye. Not that I could wake up because I barely slept. But I didn't give up and it helped that during that week I was very busy and tired at the end of the day, I just couldn't rouse myself to cater to her whims. By the third day, the crying was shorter and farther in between, , but still difficult for me to fall asleep because she would only quiet down clinging to my arm or using my tummy as a pillow. But we made steady progress, with a couple of relapses. And last night she finally taught herself to keep sleeping all on her own. Praise be Jesus alleluia! Please please please let this continue for the rest of her life.
Now all that's left is for me to teach myself to sleep through unconscious kicks and headbutts. But that's ok. I'm just so happy and proud. Yay Desi! Way to go!
Desi signed!
I've been making hand gestures at her since he day she turned six months. Waiting and waiting and waiting for her to wrap her head around the idea that "signing gets you what you want." Since she became an expert at Bye Bye, Beautiful Eyes and Clap Clap, I kept thinking, any day now. She'll sign deliberately. Like, maybe today. Or today. Or maybe today.
Well, last night, both girls and I were watching Bunnytown while waiting for dinner to be served. And Desi had been restless all day. She wasn't able to nap because we spent the afternoon drowning in a mountain of pink frills reorganizing the closet that the girls share. Lia was watching, dancing and singing along with the show and Desi was rolling around climbing the headboard and randomly yelling frustratedly. Until suddenly, she gives me her signature Desi frown, extends her hand at me and squeezes it two times. That's the sign for milk. And I was all, Dede? Dede? You want to make dede? SURE! Even if we were set to have dinner in ten minutes, I quickly lay her across my lap to nurse. I was so happy!
She signed it again to ask for water during dinner. Which is ok. It means she thinks the gesture means "drink" instead of "milk." And she did it again to me that evening after dinner when I signed and asked her "Dede?" She signed it back to me. And we nursed. And she fell asleep. YAY!
Not only that, she slept ALL NIGHT! Didn't even wake when Daddy arrived from the airport. She slept from 8:30ish to 6:00AM non stop! Wow! All those sleepless nights paid off.
You see, the last eight nights have been an ascent from hell into the world of... well, tolerable heat. But I knew fluffy clouds and angels are in sight when the first time I woke up this morning and my watch pointed to 6AM rather than the usual 2. Mike had a series of out of town work trips these past couple of weeks and I took it as an opportunity to sleep train Desi. That is to say, to teach her to fall asleep without needing a boob in her mouth. How did I do that, you ask? The hard way. I'd put her to sleep and then refuse to nurse until sunrise. The first two nights, as you can imagine, gave me eye-bags under eye-luggage. No sleeping at all with a baby that not only cries every five minutes into the wee hours, but sits up, half crawls and then flings her body and very hard skull into my face. Twice I thought I'd wake up with a black eye. Not that I could wake up because I barely slept. But I didn't give up and it helped that during that week I was very busy and tired at the end of the day, I just couldn't rouse myself to cater to her whims. By the third day, the crying was shorter and farther in between, , but still difficult for me to fall asleep because she would only quiet down clinging to my arm or using my tummy as a pillow. But we made steady progress, with a couple of relapses. And last night she finally taught herself to keep sleeping all on her own. Praise be Jesus alleluia! Please please please let this continue for the rest of her life.
Now all that's left is for me to teach myself to sleep through unconscious kicks and headbutts. But that's ok. I'm just so happy and proud. Yay Desi! Way to go!