Surviving Without Daddy

It's day three without Mick here; he's in England visiting his family. Jack and I have survived the last three days & nights on our own and Jack has acquiesced in letting me give him his nightly bath (even though he clearly prefers Mick). This is what he did this morning, demonstrating to me that he wants to get OUT and get to wherever Daddy might be. (Sherg was right there with him as she misses Mick more than any of us!)

We've had lots of developments in the last few days. Jack has started crawling... and that has meant a LOT more work for me. Getting him dressed is now a full workout for me. All he wants to do is flip over and crawl away, so I am constantly chasing him and dressing him backwards. He does the same in the bathtub and that's a little trickier as obviously I don't want him face down in the water.

The crawling has also wrought havoc on our sleeping situation around here. The night before Mick left, Jack's sleep was very shoddy; he woke up every 15 - 20 minutes, just screaming hysterically. It was frustrating to say the least. Parents are programmed to know there will be sleep disturbances in the first few months of life. But once your little one is doing a good job sleeping and then all of a sudden just stops, it leaves a parent in a bit of a frenzy. I did some research (of course... as I'm the consummate researcher) and found that babies can encounter "sleep regression" when they are about to hit a developmental milestone. Aha! I thought. Babies commonly have sleep issues when they are about to learn to crawl as they try to practice this new-found skill during their light sleeping phases. I am certain this is what has been going on, as every night that I've gone in to settle my little screaming monster he's on all fours, rocking in his crib. Poor thing is trying to crawl! I read this online and it described our situation precisely: "Crawling can also bring on separation anxiety as your little one starts to realize that they are not an attachment of you but their own separate being. This type of anxiety has a distinctive cry that is often described by parents as more of a scream or as hysterical and can cause quite a bit of sleep regression."

Not only is Jack working on crawling though, but he's also worked out how to pull himself to standing in his crib. Alas, this is what I walked in to find on Saturday morning:
Needless to say, I lowered that darn crib mattress yesterday afternoon as I don't want any acrobatics happening in Jack's bedroom in the near future!

Now, knock wood, Jack's sleep was near perfect last night. Finally. In addition to not sleeping at night, he's also been on a nap strike, sleeping maybe a grand total of 1 1/2 hours during the day. He woke up last night once and I just went in and gave him his pacifier (which he really only takes at bedtime) and he went right back to sleep. It was only a seven-minute disturbance in my sleep. I feel SO much more like a human today. After four days of functioning on so little sleep, I was beginning to fear I might become a real hazard to Jack's and my well-being! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this lasts... (at least until the next developmental milestone!).