well, it's official...

it's time to get "breathable bumpers" for milo's crib.

i had planned to just skip bumpers altogether, since there's been such a hubbub over anything in the crib and how it could possibly cause SIDS.

tuesday into wednesday, milo had slept on his side all night long. he also didn't wake up much (or to the point that i had to get up and check on sleep training stuff. on wednesday morning, when i went to get milo - as he was fussing and awake - i found that he was actually on his belly (not his side), and his feet were halfway off the mattress, sticking through the slats.

and since he's started his rolling adventures, milo hasn't stayed on his back through the night.

thus - it's time for these breathable bumpers so he doesn't wind up with a limb hanging loose that he can't figure out how to pull back in (since "learning how to crawl" is still on his to-do list).

also, he's newly discovered the "mmmm" sound.

i and even my mom have heard him babble this consonant/vowel combo that sounds like "mum-mum-mum" - which we all know is british for "mom" which means milo has already started making words. (nevermind the fact that he doesn't really know what he's saying, he's just exploring new sounds. i don't care; i say it still counts.)

oh criminy...

i'm posting again because tomorrow we leave for chicago, and i don't want to forget when this first happened for realsies.

milo is now intentionally rolling. and not just rolling one way, but both ways.

before it was more of a "whoops, i leaned too far over while propped up on my arms." but not this. i looked to the monitor after he had stopped making noise, as i'd just put him down for a nap. he had been fussing for awhile, but he was fine, just annoyed that i'm not holding him while he falls asleep. anyhow, i saw that his back was to the camera - this was new. i thought he was possibly on his belly, and worried that he could be face down in the crib and not able to roll back over, i creeped in as quietly as i could, but as soon as i poked my head in, he rolled back over and smiled at me.

he did this to me twice, and then again to ben... what a little stinker!

he was more so on his side than his belly, but he's gotten to his belly as well, and was able to roll back over just fine...

so there's another milestone!

sha-ZAAAMMMM!!!!

we had HUGE thunderstorms last night. cracks of lightning and rolling thunder and rain that beat down so hard it almost sounded like hail.

when we went to sleep last night after putting milo down, i was mentally preparing myself for the many wakings and tear filled complaints, "but mooommmmmmmm, you used to always give me a bottle to help me fall back asleep, why are we stopping now? waaaaaaahhhhh!"

and while our power went out (albeit briefly), and ben and i both awoke many times to what seemed like lightning right in our backyard, milo slept through the whole thing.

what?!?

yup. didn't wake up once.

i'd like to think that ben and i are so effective at "sleep training" that it only took us a day and a half (ha!), but somehow i have this sneaking suspicion that maybe all that rain and "white noise" as they call it - even with the bright flashes and loud crashes - helped him sleep better?

anyhow, let's just say, i needed that 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. (well, okay, maybe it wasn't exactly "uninterrupted" as we did wake up a bunch, but the wakings had nothing to do with a distraught little boy, which meant no guilt complex for mommy, and at 5:30 a.m. when he finally did wake up, i was happy and ready to go.)

and while he slept great last night, i'm not about to expect it again tonight, because when i do and then it doesn't happen, i get hulk-like miffed, and cranky-mommy is no fun for anyone.

and now... on with the day! :)

i call it "floomphing"

lately milo has been flailing his arms and legs with a lot more oomph than usual.

he's also figuring out how to stick his butt in the air and push his feet on the ground. i think this is an attempt at crawling, but clearly he hasn't really got a handle on how to add all the components together. (and really, he's only up on his forearms/hands, he has yet to discover how to get his knees under his torso.)

and when he gets tired of tummy time, i hold his hands while he stands, a little wobbly on his legs, and tries to take steps. i'm not convinced he realizes that he's walking, or that if he could simply keep himself balanced while standing, he could actually go places.

late last night (or really, early this morning, as it was about 3:30 am?) ben helped me teach milo how to self-soothe. it was both exhausting and comforting - milo just hasn't been sleeping well, but we know he's getting enough to eat. at this point, i know he's just getting up out of habit. ben took over going in and helping him calm down without a bottle, and it was a huge help to finally discuss and decide together how we want to go about this whole business of "sleep training"...

i'm not looking forward to the next few weeks, and perhaps it was foolish to try starting this right before my little jaunt back down to chicago for some pampered chef parties, but i'm tired of being tired and trying to help milo fall back asleep at night when really, he needs to learn how to get himself back to sleep. (he's totally discovered how to suck on his thumb, now if only he'd utilize it in the middle of the night...)

and the follow-through...

ben's off work today, which means he and milo are marathoning "deadliest catch" on netflix, and i'm getting caught up on everything.

soooo.... here's the post i wanted to write two days ago:

fingernails: his nails have been growing way too quickly. i feel like i'm trimming them every couple of days... realistically, it's probably only every 4 days, but that still feels like a lot.

sitting up: milo is so close to being able to sit up on his own for reals. he'll sit solo just fine for maybe a minute, but then he starts to lean, and if i don't hold him or pull him back to center, he'll fall over. however, he's happy to sit (with some assistance) for maybe 10-15 minutes at a time.

reading books: milo finally seems to enjoy story time - at least one or two little (ie - 5 page, few words, etc.) books. before he just wouldn't sit still, the pictures and colors didn't seem to phase him. but now he'll sit and look and listen, which is good, because i've been wanting to get in the habit of reading to him, but it was hard to do so when he just wasn't up for it.

moving in the crib: milo has just barely begun to start movin' and a groovin' in his crib. it only happened a few times last week, but often he would stretch and lift his butt off the mattress and kick his legs, so then he'd wind up laying the width of the crib instead of the length. really this only happened a few times when he was still wide awake and we tried to put him down thinking he was tired. he was not too thrilled about it. when he scooted so much that his head was pressing up against the crib slats, he really wasn't happy about it. it hasn't happened much in the crib since, but when we put him on his back on the playmat, he often scootches around that as well.

hair: it seems to be growing like weeds - or at least it's getting a lot thicker, and a little longer. this silky blond tuft covering his little head, i love it.

monologuing: he babbles and talks so much now, i'm convinced he knows what he's saying and that he thinks he's communicating with us effectively. the fluctuations and variety of jarbles that come out of his mouth are fascinating, but it makes me even more anxious to start hearing real words come out of his little mouth.

tummy time: since dr. bob told us milo wasn't getting enough tummy time, i've been making sure to give him more. he's still not crazy about it, but he's getting more content, and he continues to kick his legs lots and hold himself up.

plus two bonus categories!

bath-time: i think milo is starting to realize that bath-time can be fun. not fully there yet, but there was definitely a look of curious wonderment at his most recent bath on wednesday. i tried to show him the fun of splashing, but i think he'll need a few more baths before he figures it out on his own.

playing footsie: it seems like milo's feet are almost always on the go, with sleeping being his one exception. when he's eating, he presses his feet up against the arm of the rocking chair and almost plays with it with his feet. when we hold him or he's on his back, he plays footsie with himself. when he's in his exersaucer, he kicks and lifts his feet off the floor of it. and of course, when he's in his jumping, his feet are preoccupied with lift-off.

just a reminder...

i need to write a new post for all that milo's been up to, and good glory, he's been up to a lot, apparently, what with all i've been posting!

however, last night was not very sleep-filled, so i'm just going to do a quick reminder list. maybe/hopefully i'll get to it later today? we'll shall see.

but for now:

• fingernails
• sitting up
• reading books
• moving in the crib
• hair
• monologuing
• tummy time

i knew it was coming...

just the other day i thought to myself, "gee, i have yet to be approached by an overbearing, opinionated, out-spoken mother who wants to give me old-wives-tales advice on some matter concerning my child." immediately following that thought came another: "i'll probably get ten such women in the next two days..."

well, i haven't gotten ten, but today as i was picking up milo from the nursery at mops, they were commenting on how strong milo is, and i jokingly replied that we figure he'll be walking before he crawls at the rate he's going; to which i got: "oh, you don't want to skip that step! crawling is so important; they've linked it to reading, you know. if he doesn't crawl first, he'll have trouble with reading."

i didn't know how to respond. some dear friends have warned me that "wiser" (::ahem:: by which i mean "older") generations had been taught this, but that it's not true. i decided to google it, and couldn't really find any news articles covering the topic, though plenty of blog postings and chat-forums on the subject.

this was the one i liked the most, maybe because so many people "prove" it wrong, who knows. but either way, it's not worth me worrying about. milo isn't even rolling over yet - though he's certainly started trying. (i guess those one or two times it happened a few months ago were flukes, because he certainly hasn't really figured it out again since.) he can get to his side, and he'll lift up his rear and and back off the ground (or his bed, or whatever he's on - luckily, though, he hasn't yet tried it on the changing table, but i won't give him the opportunity to find out on his own), but he hasn't figured out that if he leans to the side while he does this that he'll roll.

so anyhow, if he's not even really rolling yet, and definitely not crawling or walking, well, then what's to worry about? who knows if he'll actually walk before he crawls. and let's say he does, and let's pretend that in milo's case, these studies are correct, and he does have difficulty reading. well then, we'll deal with it. it's not like he'd be the first child to have such a difficulty. it's not like it causes blindness. or something even worse than that. sheesh.

when the lady told me this, (and she was indeed of the "wiser" generation) i simply nodded my head back inquisitively and said, "huh, that's interesting." but while i didn't really find it interesting, i didn't feel the need to correct her or scold her or defend myself. she had just graciously been taking good care of my child; i had no desire to burn that bridge.

now in that matter of childcare, i just need someone so i can go to the zumba class on wednesday mornings at 9:30 am.... maybe they'd let me bring him with, put him in the stroller and just push him around while i do their crazy dance work-out? wouldn't that be a sight! :P