I'm pretty sure I can see a little bit of Peanut Butter Cup's middle upper right tooth as of today. I'm not 100% sure as the little munchkin has a habit of never staying still long enough for me to get much more than a glimpse of what is happening in there, and he hasn't been too keen on me feeling in there due to his gums being sore. However, from the glimpses I did manage to get, it looked like the tooth was either starting to break through, or is getting very close to doing so!
Oh, a quick update on his sleeping pattern of late . . . I think it is mostly due to separation anxiety, along with discomfort from teething and other things. Some nights are better than others, while others are how I described them before. Most likely though, it is just Munchkin needing a little extra closeness to help him feel more safe and secure. Hopefully this stage won't last for a LONG time, but I will be there for him as long as he needs me. "This too shall pass . . . ."
Peanut Butter Cup tried Butternut Squash for the first time tonight and seemed to like it . . . I'm hoping to try avocados with him again in the near future, but I'm not sure when exactly that will take place. I have been working on restocking our freezer with homemade 'baby cubes' for the past couple of weeks. I still have a lot of fresh/frozen produce I need to steam/cook and freeze in the next few days, so hopefully Peanut Butter Cup will entertain himself long enough for me to get a lot done in the near future. :-)
Well, I should be heading to bed soon! Have a blessed day!
Yay for more teeth! Not yay for what you have to go through to cut them! :-)
ReplyDeleteI read that article you posted in the previous post, and it was really interesting. I think the 20-month-old boy I nanny has a few similar needs—he really has a tough time falling asleep at naptime unless he's holding my hand as he falls asleep. The times I have tried to leave him or even just lay on the floor in the room and not reach my hand through his crib bars to let him touch me, it will upset him enough that when I do finally let him have my hand and he falls asleep, he doesn't sleep well or for very long. I'm not sure, though, that in his case if it's a need for a person or just a need for the familiar. I've often wished that he had some sort of routine that is followed every time he goes to sleep, because I feel like that is really what he needs. I think if he was given the same stuffed animal or blanket or something and if the same music was played quietly, it would begin to send a signal to his mind that it is now time to quiet down and sleep. I've seen many kids who get upset when they're taken into their room to be put to bed, but as soon as they are in the crib and the familiar things occur, they calm down, get into the position they like to sleep in, and just look at you like "when are you going to leave—I'm trying to go to sleep here!"
Have you thought of trying some sort of noise-maker before? I don't know if a soothing waves sound or even fan sound would help PBC sleep any better, but I know one of my cousins discovered her son would wake up a lot during the night when she didn't have his turned on because the silence would actually wake him up (or other random noises would that would be masked by the noise-maker). I don't know if having some constant dull noise would wake PBC up when he gets to the lighter parts of his sleep, or if that would help him stay asleep and not wake completely up when his sleep starts getting lighter. I could see it working either way :-)
I think I interrupted myself mid-thought up there :-) What I was leading up to with the little boy I watch, is that with familiarity would come reassurance, which is what he really needs. So I'm not sure he's as much of a high-need toddler as he is a really clingy one. He needs constant reassurance on just about everything, and when it comes to sleeping, he needs to know that falling asleep now is okay. Nothing will happen to him, and when he wakes up we can all go back to what we were doing before he went to sleep. Having that going-to-sleep routine would, I believe, help give him that reassurance. It would let him know what's going on, and he would be able to realize, "I've done this before, I know exactly what is happening now, and if I fall asleep, I'm going to be okay." I think right now being able to touch me is what gives him that assurance. With a 5-year-old that also needs attention, it would be a lot easier on everyone if he would be able to be reassured in some way other than my physical presence :-)
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