Where's my binky?

pac·i·fy  (ps-f)

tr.v. pac·i·fied, pac·i·fy·ing, pac·i·fies

1. To ease the anger or agitation of.

2. To end war, fighting, or violence in; establish peace in.

You may recall that we successfully cured Ari of his pacifier addiction a few months ago during sleep training.  Since he no longer needs the soothing sensation to put himself to sleep, I went around the house, collected all but one of the plastic blue suckers, and disposed of them in the diaper genie (I knew I wouldn't stick my hand back in there to get them.  Who am I kidding?  A little poop doesn't scare me, but thankfully, I didn't need to.)

I kept his wubbanub...in case of "emergencies". 

(Whatawub?  It's a little stuffed animal attached to a pacifier.  Ari can easily find it, put it in his mouth, and then hold on to the animal for extra comfort. )

Example A(ri): "Incognito"

I use the term "emergency" loosely.  Tired? Cranky? Hungry? Bored?   (Definition #1 above)

Emergency!  

Wubbunub is a magic cure-all.  Oh how I love the wubbanub.  Er, I mean, Ari loves his wubbanub.

Monday was Memorial Day, and after we explained to Ari how lucky he is to be an American and how thankful we are to the troops for keeping us safe, Ari expressed that war is not the answer by grabbing for his pacifier (definition #2 above...Ari is a pacifist).  Then the 4 of us (mom, dad, baby, wubbunub) went for a walk to Walgreens to buy an inflatable pool (Ari was a tad embarrassed by his mom's use of the bathtub in the front yard.  And even more embarrassed that she posted the picture on facebook.  In case you missed it...

 .)

Five minutes into the walk, I glanced down and noticed the wubbanub was no longer in the stroller.  I stopped.  I freaked.  I had heart palpitations.  I broke out in hives.  I whimpered.  Where was my wubbanub?! 

Matt pacified me by explaing that we could buy another wubbunub.  And then gently asked if I needed a wubbunub of my own. 

Not a bad idea.  For emergencies?  I get cranky/hungry/tired/bored too...

(And guess what we found on the sidewalk on our walk home?!  Thank you Brookline residents for not taking the wub.)

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go BACK to sleep

I slept on my tummy as a baby.  So did you.  And we turned out fine.  But the rules have changed; babies now sleep on their backs.  It's a SIDS risk.  I'm pretty sure the first "S" stands for "sudden" and doctors have never been able to find a cause for this sudden horrific occurrence, but, as a preventive measure, parents must put babies on their backs until they're strong enough to roll over on their tummies.

(For the record, I never met anyone who died from SIDS.)

(Yeah, that was a bad joke.)

We were doing great.  Ari was finally sleeping 12 hours a night and 4 hours during the day.  We were both so happy, so well rested, so up-to-date on reality TV.  And then, he started rolling over.  It was exciting!  The video camera was working overtime and Matt and I would just sit and stare giddily as Ari flipped himself from back to stomach.  We would immediately flip him back over so we could watch his little roll again and again.  He even smiled after every roll as we cheered proudly by his side.  It's no wonder he decided to roll in the middle of the night as well.

Check out this very boring video of Ari (well, it's of the video monitor) showing off his straight-jacketed shimmy after bedtime: 

This presents a few problems.  First, he can't roll himself back.  Second, he can't sleep face-down swaddled (now that's an IDS risk).  Finally, when I don't swaddle him, he can't fall asleep. 

HELP!!  Any moms out there with some good advice?

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We came, we cried, we conquered

In her book The Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg refers to actions by parents like Matt and me as "accidental parenting."  I think the term is unfair and inaccurate.  I would define "accidental parenting" with the quote by the stars of MTV's Teen Mom who tell their parents, "it was an accident."  Contrarily, Matt and I knew exactly what we were doing that steamy night last January (fine, it wasn't steamy, a girl can dream).

Anyway, Hogg (who died in 2004, long before MTV and Gloucester High and US Weekly glorified teen motherhood) uses this term to describe actions parents take that they think are best for their baby, but ultimately cause unhealthy habits.  Running into the baby's room 20 times a night to replace the pacifier, picking the baby up every time he wakes mid-nap, and letting him snack all day and night long are a few examples in the book.  And oops, we did them all (on purpose...we are purposeful parents).  It shouldn't have been a surprise that he wasn't sleeping at night, but it sure was frustrating.  So we called in our own baby whipererer (auntie erin, mother of 4, heart of steel) who helped us develop a plan of attack.  Email me if you want the full plan, but the gist of it was let him cry, don't feed him at night, and don't go in his room.  She even convinced me that when he cried, he was saying, "Mom, give me a chance to put myself to sleep."  Sleep deprived, I believed her. 

It took a few nights and wasn't nearly as traumatic as I expected, and now, we have a 7:30pm-7:30am night sleeper.  And, the pacifier is a thing of the past.  Now that the baby is sleeping, and we're sleeping, there's only one thing to do...start working on #2.  And then claim it was an accident.

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Love letters

Dear Mom and Dad,

The last few nights have been really lonely. I like waking up every 2 hours and being fed by Mom or held by Dad and neither of you came to my crib. Did I do something wrong? I yelled for you - didn't you hear me? I wasn't sure if you were asleep, so I was really really ridiculously loud. I missed you so much I cried. I went back to sleep eventually, but it was hard to fall asleep without you. And, what happened to all of my pacifiers?

Will I see you tonight? Pleeeease.  Love, Ari

Dear Ari,

We love you very much and we missed you too. But, we want you to sleep all night long. You don't need to eat or see us to sleep soundly. You are a big wonderful boy and we know you can do it. Tonight, why don't you just suck on your thumb? It is much better than the pacifier because it's always attached to you. And rather than cry out for us, just think about how great it will be to see us in the morning. Go back to sleep.

Sweet dreams.  Love, Mom and Dad

Dear Neighbors,

Did you forget you live in a townhouse? I may be a mean 80 year old woman, but I need my sleep. Your baby cried on and off for what felt like all night long. Please do not let it happen again.

Your old hag of a neighbor, R

Dear R,
I'm on your side. What were they thinking?! 
Sorry I was so loud, Ari

Dear R,
MYOB.
JulieSue & Matt

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