Jackson turned one on Tuesday, August 6th. I decided to celebrate by taking him to the pool and then for his one year well baby check up. I can report that half of my idea was good; I am sure you can guess which half. The one year vaccinations (pneumonia, MMR, and chicken pox) did a number on him for a few days. Throw in a transition from easy to digest formula to whole milk and eating table food, this kid had a lot going on.
We celebrated his first birthday on Saturday, August 9th. It was intended to be a "baby rager"so we provided fun for adults and children. It was a lovely party in MayMay & Grandy's backyard and there was a great turn out considering it was on a weekend in August (Bendites tend to make the most of summer weekends and go camping).
Jackson was tired and "off" for his party, but he put on a good show. We are fortunate that he loves people, especially other kids, so he handled it pretty well. It seemed like everyone had fun and the slip & slide was a hit once Colin demonstrated proper technique for the kids. We put a lot of time, effort, and money into the shindig, so it was nice to see it all come together so well. We continue to feel so blessed to have so many people in our lives that love and support our family.
Once the party was over and cleaned up, it was time for me to enjoy the last few days of summer before work starts again. It really started to sink in that Jackson is not our baby anymore. He is a toddler now and it is starting to show. Eating table foods is a new milestone that he has mastered. In fact, he is so good he can even eat part of a pine needle without choking. Go Jackson! He loves his whole milk (pretty sure he got that from me; I may sneak some from his stash sometimes) and is starting to understand how to use his sippy cup.
The biggest milestone is still slightly out of reach. Jackson still cannot walk on his own. He has been crawling very efficiently for months now. We spend a lot of time making sure he is not "out of bounds". He can climb the entire staircase by himself (with a supervisor there to catch him, of course) and this is just one of the many hazardous zones in our house we have to block off and monitor. He loves to "cruise" around using furniture and just about anything else he can hang on to, so he is very close to walking. However, the first steps have not happened just yet.
People have told me to push him down when he tries to walk to prolong the event. First of all, that is mean. Second, why would I not want him to walk? Frankly, I think it is time he starts getting around on his own. He weighs over twenty pounds and it is starting to take a toll on my body. I had a massage last week (and it was glorious), but the pain I endured as this poor woman tried to work out the tightness in my back, neck, and shoulders was unbelievable. Remind me again why it would be a bad thing if Jackson could walk out to the car on his own. I think that sounds great.
You can do it buddy!
My naive expectation has been that Jackson would finally sleep through the night by the time he is one. Honestly, the fact he has not been consistently sleeping through the night is all my fault. I was told by his pediatrician in May that if it is easier to get up and nurse him back to sleep if he is waking up in the middle of the night that I was not going to do any permanent "sleep damage". My thought was to continue this process while I was working so I could maximize my sleep and I would deal with sleep training (aka: crying it out) in the summer when I had more time to nap. Either way, this never happened and I have been waking up with him all summer.
Okay, so Jackson is one. Not only does he still wake up at night, it is harder to put him back down AND he is all the sudden having a hard time going down for naps. I can tell he is so tired, but he fights sleep for as long as he can. This means I spend up to four hours per day (those are the really bad days) just trying to get him down for his two naps. It is pretty hard to feel as if I have accomplished anything when that much time is spent trying to help him get the sleep he so desperately needs.
Fortunately, my friend mentioned the other day that she is experiencing the same thing with her 18 month old son and that she forgot from her experience with her older child that this happens several times before two years old. What Jackson has been experiencing is sleep regression, again. Upon further research, sleep regression usually happens just before a major milestone. We are at the classic one year sleep regression stage, just before the walking milestone. According to several websites and sleep "experts", the brain is so busy trying to figure out how to walk, which is a major progression, something else has to regress, and sleep is the most common victim.
Perhaps the most disturbing information I came across was that this can go on anywhere from two to six weeks.
Six weeks?
The good news is we are about a week in. Let's just hope we fit in to the two week scenario. Mama needs her patience for the middle schoolers that will be in her classroom in just two short weeks.
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It is not my intention to portray Jackson as a total nightmare toddler. We certainly are not there yet. From what I hear, age three is when I will start those posts. Actually, other than the misery of trying to get him to sleep, he is at his best ever right now. He is such a charmer and flirt in public. People are so delighted by him because he smiles, laughs, waves, and claps anytime he is given attention. I am so proud of his wonderful personality. To avoid tainting his public image, I will spare you the details of what happens in his nursery before naps and bedtime.........
I just forgot how to go to sleep, mama.
