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Home › Diaries › Jeanelle H's › November 28, 2000

Jeanelle H's Diary Entries

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November 28, 2000

Hello again!

Well, Dylan had his "First" Thanksgiving last week. He didn't know any different. He enjoyed his Gerber Stage 2 Turkey Vegetable Dinner and Green Peas. As for us we ate a nontraditional dinner, we BBQed. We had our Thanksgiving dinner while my parents were here the weekend before, so I felt no need to have another one.

As far as Dylan goes, he is striving everyday. He is on the go, walking, holding onto the walls and furniture. Logan, his older brother, wants him to play with him so badly, but I have to keep explaining that Dylan is too little to play cars and build castles. Then when Dylan makes his way back to the playroom and Logan is making a puzzle or building a castle, Logan gets so mad that Dylan has come and knocked everything over. When I am in the kitchen cooking dinner and I hear this screech coming from the back of the house I make my way back there, and there is Dylan on top of Logan's castle. I tried explaining to Logan that he doesn't understand how to play with toys or not to mess his things up. So, to get Logan to calm down I made a game out of Dylan knocking his things over; Dylan now has the name "TOY TERROR." So, now when Dylan makes his way over to where Logan is playing, I'll hear, "Oh no, here comes the 'TOY TERROR.'" It seems to be working for now.

Over the weekend I thought that I was going to die of lack of sleep. Friday night I was up almost all night with the little one. He was determined that he was not going to go back to sleep. I finally got him back to sleep around 5:30 that morning. Mike was supposed to go hunting but stayed behind because he knew that I was up all night with the baby. He got up with the boys, fed Dylan his bottle and fruit cereal and got Logan his milk and breakfast. He shut our bedroom door and let me crash. Oh boy, did I ever. I woke up at 11:15 a.m. and I jumped out of bed not meaning to sleep that late, but I guess that I needed it. I got up and started my daily routine, and Mike went to work. I can't tell you how rested I felt, I didn't know what to do with myself.

Then Sunday night comes along and I call my mom to ask her what else I could try to help Dylan sleep through the night. She said that I should call her sister in Georgia because she went through the same thing with her daughter. So I did, and while talking to her she said that I am doing everything right, the only thing that I should not do is take him out of his crib. I should just lay him back down and pat his back and talk to him, tell him that I love him, but he needs to go to sleep. She said that her daughter cried for four hours the first night and then after that he got better. It took her four nights and she was sleeping through the night.

I thought that I had nothing to lose, so I did it, and boy did he cry. It started around 12:45 a.m. and I did everything that I needed to do. I waited 10-20 minutes before going back in and starting the whole process over again. I walked up and down the halls crying with him. He would stop and catch his breath and I would think, OK he's fallen back to sleep and then all of a sudden here comes this cry that you would think someone is beating their child. Well, he finally gave in and went back to sleep at 4:45 a.m. That was the hardest thing I have done, to sit there and listen to him cry, but I knew that I needed to do it. But what you know and what you feel are two different things.

Monday morning comes and he gets up at 7:30 a.m. to start the day and we go about our daily routine. I did everything in my power to keep him up until 1 p.m. in the afternoon and it worked, he went down for a nap, a good one at that. He was in bed last night at 8:30 p.m. and I prayed that he would stay down all night. When I went to check on him before I went to bed it was around 10:30 p.m. and I saw that he didn't have his pacifiers, so I put four of them in bed hoping that if he woke up he would find at least one of them. Well, it worked, he slept until 8:30 a.m. this morning. I just hope that he keeps this up.

I find myself at night thanking God for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with. I know that I like to have things done a certain way and my house always has to be clean, but on the days where I want to stay in my pajamas and know that I don't always have to be perfect, that my boys are going to sometimes give the biggest headache that I have ever had. It's at night when I put them to bed and go and check on them before I go to sleep, I see their innocent faces and little bodies, I have to thank God for what he has given me. Watching them at night makes my heart swell with love and gratitude for what I have. Then I realize that I am the luckiest person in the world to have a wonderful husband and two beautiful boys. Thank you Dylan for blessing my life and making me understand unconditional love. Keep thriving and growing my little man, Mommy loves you.

Until next time, Jeanelle and Dylan, 9 months



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