Crib Training V2.01

Part II 
Night 1

I just decided out of the blue that I would attempt crib training Noah...again. Tonight of all nights. Yes I have work tomorrow. Yes I am exhausted  and yes I would rather not deal with this...but I told myself to toughen up and get it over with. 

8 pm.

I put him in his extra large sleeveless white sleep sack. (Only used when sleeping in the crib because he is not a fan of blankets).We walked over to the nursery. The lights were already off. I turned on his very ugly Mr. Mets pillow-night-light which projects flashing-colored-stars onto the ceiling. He was intrigued. Ooohhs and aaahs and babbling because he loves it. I made sure his crib had those cute little pillows and koolbalish and I sat him down with a pacifier already in place. He likes comfort so I really tried to make it snuggly. 

Bismillah. Here goes....

For about 15-20 minutes we played a game. He would grunt and try to stand up (failing many times due to the extra long sleep sack) and every time he stood up, either halfway or full, I grabbed him and laid him right back down onto his pillow. Up again. Down again. Up. Down. Up. Down.  MANY. MANY. Times. All while remaining silent. I almost gave up. "He's not gonna go to sleep, he's just not..he's too happy and alert..but at least he's not crying!" I thought. 

He started to smack and kick the crib railing... And smacking the back wall of the crib. Grabbing the pillows. Throwing the pillows. Biting the pillows. Babbling and oohing some more. Exploring his territory I suppose. 

It took about an hour but he put himself to sleep. Alhamdulillah. Could it be this easy, again? Well, let's see..

12 am, a scream. Hey, at least he lasted 3 hours!

1226 am, another scream and cry.

Nope. 
Not gonna be easy. 

It's going to be a long night. 

Amma

This morning, while I was preparing Noah's milk, he was being very whiny  and just wanted to be held. He crawled over to me and grabbed onto my leg. He kept pulling my pjs back and forth while attempting to stand and oh yeah, he was crying throughout it all. I had to make sure his milk wasn't falling all over the place while holding my leg at that perfect angle to prevent him from falling down. All I could do was verbally console him. "It's ok mama.." (As per Tahmeed, I should be calling him baba. Who cares, it's 2015, AMIRIGHT or AMIRIGHT?!)

"Umm mum mum mum...umm mum mum mum.." *tug on leg* "umm mum mum mum.." *tugs some more* "umm mum.." 

And then it hit me!! He's calling me! "Amma"! Those are the babbling sounds he never makes so I know it's true! Yes, he loves me, he really loves me! 

And I continue to fall in love over and over again. Sighs...

Memories

This age is the cutest. He's almost 11 months (tomorrow). He's crawling, holding onto things, babbling, recognizing people. I can't get over the cuteness and want to cuddle with him especially when I think about how fast time is going by. 

I try to recall the first few months of his life but it's all a blur. I had a few videos recorded at that stage but somehow they got lost / erased. *trying not to think about it* Le SIGH. 

Anyway, here are some month 10 memories:

Eating more solids than milk. 2 meals per day plus snacks. 

Waving bye a few times.

Opening cabinets and doors. 

Pulling clothes out of the drawers.

Absolutely throwing a tantrum when clothes / winter coat and accessories are being put on.

Moving about during diaper changing time. 

Biting mommy and daddy and finding it hilarious. 

Giving the best droolsome kisses with a mouth open wide while saying, "ahhhh..." 

Being able to properly eat finger foods.

Holding and drinking from his sippy cup for the first time!

Holding onto his walker and taking walks.

Being able to climb a few steps!! 

Saying dada, baba and an occasional momma. 

I'll add some more as I recall them. I just can't believe he's almost 1! Alhamdulillah he is such a happy baby. May Allah always preserve his happiness.

Diaper changing time

"Diaper changing time" is the phrase that Tahmeed sings to Noah each time he places him on the napper station (which is part of his playard.)

It's a bit easy to change his diaper there. He's restricted and we usually distract him with a toy. He doesn't try to move much and associates the place with a diaper change. 

But if we are out, boy it can take up to 4 people to change a diaper! (That was the case last night...I was changing his diaper, Tahmeed was holding him and my MIL/ family friend was distracting him, LOL) He cries when being put down in an unfamiliar place. He squirms and moves and gets back on his belly and starts crawling away. He refuses to sit still, even with distractions in his hand. 

This behavior doesn't occur on changing stations at stores but generally if we are over at people's house. Maybe he has some intuition that he's able to run amuck? dunno. I just hope he doesn't pee on me during one of the longer changes. 

First birthday

He will be 1 years old on February 13th and there has been all this pressure from both my mother and mother in law to throw a huge party. 

"He's our only grandson, we want a big party!" (mom and MIL) 

"You HAVE to do it, I don't care, nope!" (My mom, lol) 

"I'm kinda shocked and can't understand why you guys don't want a party." (My MIL, lol) 

Because of that, we've been going back and forth and I keep leaving the final decision to Tahmeed.

 

"OK...Whatever you think, I'll do, I can't decide..." "Ok let's just do it..." "Maybe not.." "I dunno!" *insert sweating bullets emoticon*

Don't get me wrong, I love parties and I absolutely love planning but for some reason, both Tahmeed and I are just not interested in having a huge birthday blast. The guest list is at least 90 people, max 110, and since it's in the winter, we'd have to host at a restaurant or banquet hall and that requires a lot of $$$. We could have coughed up the dough but there are other things going on in our life that are > a birthday bash and require that cashmoneyflowwww. 

We finally decided we will stick to our original plan: intimate house party, with immediate family (i.e both sets of grandparents and aunts), which is max 8-9 people. Maybe in a few years we can have the big party, when he'll remember, and enjoy because he'll have friends his own age.

And I do have other plans for his birthday / week. I'd like to have a 1st birthday smash cake photo shoot (on the actual day) proceeded by the cute little party at home. We'll still get a nice cake, decorations, get dressed up, take pictures, give Noah some presents. 

I'll also be taking that week off, mostly, as my family will be in town and I'm more excited to hang out with them! Inshallah. 

Who knows, maybe we'll change our mind again.