The Time, It is A-Changin…and I don’t like it!

 The Time, It is A-Changin…and I don’t like it.  I remember the days when the phrase “Fall back” meant an extra hour of sleep as well as an extra hour of drinking at the bars.  Oh, how the times have changed for me.  Now “Fall back” strikes fear and anxiety in most mother I know.  It means that your baby will probably end up waking you up an hour early for at least a couple of days as he/she adjusts to the change in his/her internal clock.  I feel that most of us as adults need about a week or so to adjust to the change.  It’s even worse for babies.  They don’t realize they are supposed to sleep an extra hour, so they try to get up just as they always would despite what the clock says. 

The logical idea to prevent this early wake up issue is to simply keep the baby up an extra hour the night before the time change.  Does that work?  Absolutely not.  Instead the baby just gets one fewer hour of sleep on the front end of the night and ends up tired and cranky the next day, which is oh, so much fun.    

Another possible solution is to start having the baby go to bed late a couple of nights or even a week before.  Some even say do this by 15 minutes each week for 4 weeks prior.  Um…well, I obviously didn’t do that, but I did keep Dominic awake for over an hour each night the 2 evenings before the time change.  However, that didn’t work.  He was just extra tired for 2 days. 

The third method to solving this problem seems to just be for us to deal with Dominic’s early wake up for a couple of days until he figures out he’s supposed to keep sleeping.  That’s what I did.  It’s not been fun, but he’s now back on schedule, waking around 8:30. 

I still want to keep pushing his wakeup time to closer to 9.  That way I can take a shower and get ready for the day before he wakes up.  Now that Dominic can no longer sit in the bouncer in the bathroom as he had done for the last 8 months, I’m having to find another place to put him during my shower.  Dominic is now prohibited from the bouncer after trying to break free from it and ending up still strapped into the seat but doing a handstand onto the floor while I was attempting to take a shower.  I’ve let Dominic run crawl free in the bathroom, but he ends up opening the shower curtain (pretty impressive there) and honestly making the shower take twice as long because I keep having to stop to keep him from misbehaving.  

Speaking of Dominic being naughty…Dominic went to see Santa Claus over the weekend.  This was an event that I’ve looked forward to for as long as I can remember.  I had arranged Dominic’s naps and feedings, so he was perfectly well-rested and well-fed for the appointment in order to ensure a great mood out of Dominic. Well, the good news is that Dominic didn’t pull Santa’s beard.  The bad news?  Dominic bawled his eyes out shortly after Brian placed him on Santa’s lap.  Luckily, the photographer managed to get a picture of Dominic right before the crying started, but unfortunately he wasn’t showing off his adorable smile.  Despite the craziness, I actually found the whole thing pretty humorous.  Such a magical memory.  

The transition to finger foods has officially begun!  I went to the store Tuesday to find finger foods that Dominic can eat.  Most of these included fruits and veggies that I steam and give in small pieces.  Of course, I discovered during my exploration of finger foods that Publix is out of everything I want on Tuesdays, so I will never make the mistake of going there on a Tuesday again.  Dominic has started eating blueberries and apple slices and seems to like both.  I cut the blueberries in half and hand-feed them to him, and I cut apple slices into small pieces that I feed him as well.  He can usually pick finger foods up but the food pieces don’t always make it into his mouth. 

I’m excited that we are finally getting our stair balusters replaced in our house.  We are having them updated with new ones, and adding ones in between the existing ones (which are also being replaced) in order to bring them up to code.  When we bought our house the inspector made us aware that the balusters were too far apart and, therefore, were not up to code.  The reason for this is that a child could fit through them.  We’ve been keeping Dominic out of the hall to avoid a possible catastrophe, but this has become increasingly more difficult as he is getting faster and faster. 

While the work was being done, Dominic and I spent the day at home on both Monday and then again on Thursday, confined to the downstairs so we wouldn’t disrupt the work on the stairs.  This meant that Dominic couldn’t sleep in his crib.  I set up his pack n play in the laundry room with his noise machine, so he could nap in there away from the noise.  However, as soon as I put Dominic down, he was bawling, so I couldn’t bring myself to leave him in there alone.  I put him in the swing, where he promptly fell asleep but woke up just half an hour later.  He basically catnapped multiple times throughout each day and wasn’t in the best mood in between those catnaps especially on Monday.  Those made for some long days but boy was it worth it to get those stairs done!

Tooth update:  Dominic now has 2 teeth.  A couple of days after I discovered his first tooth, the bottom front right one, I then found another tooth, the bottom front left one.  Both are growing in more and more and are pretty sharp.  Brian even had a painful bite from when he stuck his finger in Dominic’s mouth.  There was an indentation on his finger from it. Haha.  Thankfully, Dominic has been doing great so far.  All that we have needed to give him is a teething ring but no orajel, ibuprofen, or anything else.  We are very lucky so far…with a big knock on wood!