You know when you have a brilliant mommy moment, one of those "I GET IT" lightning bolts hits you.
I had one today at church.
Bub is very anxious at church. Mainly because for the past year he has had water dripped on him (baptism), been up past him bed time (puppet shows on the last Wednesday of the month), and abandoned (in the nursery). He's the only baby in our small congregation so as soon as we enter everyone comes up to him. Its a scary thing for a Bub! And being the only baby he is all alone in the nursery with who ever is the sitter that week. Maybe he needs a little brother or sister to keep him company, but that's a topic for another day :-)
First Sunday of the month is my turn to be the sitter so we arrived early today and headed up stairs. Our nursery is on the top level of our church along with the balcony. Because our congregation is so small and our sanctuary is large, no one ever uses it. Passing the door for the balcony the lighting bolt hit me square between the eyes! I grabbed the basket of matchbox cars from the nursery and headed to the balcony. It has wide areas between pews, perfect for a Bub to crawl around with his 'vroom-vrooms"! He was a bit loud during the service, but I got to sit and enjoy it. Bub even 'sang' during the hymns. He climbed up and down the aisles, peaking at me between the pews. I figured that if he wanted to nurse only the choir and the pastor would see us (not that anyone cares much anyway) No fuss butt disturbing anyone! Plus it gave my arms a break.
One less place I have to worry about my boy!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
In the beginning...
On November 23 2009 my husband and I welcomed our beautiful, prefect, baby boy into our lives. From the beginning we found parenthood a joy and challenge. It seems our boy was what some would call "clingy". It make sense to me that a newborn would want and need to be close to his mother so we thought nothing of it. But as the months ticked by my son still needed to be held constantly. I needed a sling or wrap to get anything done around the house.
When he was eight weeks old I went back to work. My husband changed jobs so that we could work opposite shifts and we avoided daycare. Nighttime was a struggle until we discovered co-sleeping. Our "Bub" was always with a parent: days with daddy, mornings and evenings with mommy, and nighttime with both of us.
Now my son is a year old and it has become apparent that my child is clingier and fussier than most. At his birthday party Bub would only be held by myself or my husband. He cried when grandma picked him up, screamed at aunts. His baby friends were passed around to perfect strangers and were happy to do it. One of them crawled easily to my father whom he had never met. Crawled onto his lap and played with him for an hour. My son would cry for mama as soon as grandpa tried to pick him up. I felt guilty. My parents just wanted to play with their grandson and he wanted no part of them.
It got me thinking that we held him too much, should have never let him sleep in our bed, shouldn't have let him nurse so much (every hour for the first two months then every two hours until 10 months), should we put him in day-care so he can get used to being away from us?. A million questions brought me to the internet. I googled everything I could think of: 'fussy one year old', 'clingy baby', 'separation disorder'. Turns our MY KID IS NORMAL. Or at least some version of normal.
He's just one of those kids and that's why I'm writing this. Maybe my friends and family don't understand this. I'm just the mommy of a 'fuss-butt'!
What do you do to calm a fussy baby or toddler?
When he was eight weeks old I went back to work. My husband changed jobs so that we could work opposite shifts and we avoided daycare. Nighttime was a struggle until we discovered co-sleeping. Our "Bub" was always with a parent: days with daddy, mornings and evenings with mommy, and nighttime with both of us.
Now my son is a year old and it has become apparent that my child is clingier and fussier than most. At his birthday party Bub would only be held by myself or my husband. He cried when grandma picked him up, screamed at aunts. His baby friends were passed around to perfect strangers and were happy to do it. One of them crawled easily to my father whom he had never met. Crawled onto his lap and played with him for an hour. My son would cry for mama as soon as grandpa tried to pick him up. I felt guilty. My parents just wanted to play with their grandson and he wanted no part of them.
It got me thinking that we held him too much, should have never let him sleep in our bed, shouldn't have let him nurse so much (every hour for the first two months then every two hours until 10 months), should we put him in day-care so he can get used to being away from us?. A million questions brought me to the internet. I googled everything I could think of: 'fussy one year old', 'clingy baby', 'separation disorder'. Turns our MY KID IS NORMAL. Or at least some version of normal.
He's just one of those kids and that's why I'm writing this. Maybe my friends and family don't understand this. I'm just the mommy of a 'fuss-butt'!
What do you do to calm a fussy baby or toddler?
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