Mission impossible

My mission, and I choose to accept it, is to attempt to update you on the last five days before Jack wakes up from his afternoon nap in approximately 20 minutes, if I'm lucky. Here we go!



Friday: Went to lunch with our friends Karem and baby Keira in South Kensington. Had a lovely time. Jack wore his real shoes out for the first time, and actually looked more like a proper little boy than a baby, which was a bit surprising for me. The picture isn't the best of him, but it gives you an idea of how cute he must have looked when he wasn't making a goofy face.

Jack wasn't sleepy during my lunch with Karem, so he tore up pieces of paper (I've now taken to carrying a small, fat notebook so I can give him papers to play with. I think he honestly likes it better than most of his toys) and gnawed on the cool cucumbers from my salad. We discovered Jack's second bottom tooth is coming in.


Mom and Dad's travel plans were finalized--they're coming in on November 16 and leaving on November 26. Mom's already planning a real Thanksgiving meal, which will be a very welcome change from last year. Even though we went to a great dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year, the actual day was anticlimactic. It was the day after we had found out we were having a boy, and I was so excited to buy baby boy clothes that I didn't think about cooking at all, and of course Ben didn't have the day off.


Saturday: Took Jack to his first soccer match at Fulham's Craven Cottage. We got there just after halftime, as we had free tickets and decided late that we were going. Just as we walked in, we had a perfect view of the other team scoring a wide open goal. Fortunately we were not bad luck, as Fulham scored two more goals in the remaining 40 minutes. Fairly exciting for footie. Afterwards Ben had to go into the office, so Jack and I went with him, and we both helped out before Jack fell fast asleep under Ben's desk.


Sunday: Went to mass at the Italian church. I've decided that everyone must think that Ben's Italian and I'm his non-Italian wife, as when we go up for communion, the priests and alter servers always speak to me in English and Ben in Italian. Spent the afternoon playing with food again, with little success of getting Jack to eat any of it. Ben had to go into the office all evening.



Jack had a terrible night's sleep. I decided that I would try feeding him milk or solids at least every 2 1/2 hours during the day so that he would get the idea that daytime is for eating and nighttime is for sleeping. I was pessimistic about that having much effect. I resigned myself to the idea of forcing him to go at least 4 hours between night feeds, even if that meant letting him cry a little at night. I was thoroughly convinced that I was a bad mommy who had taught my son terrible sleep habits and would have to live with the consequential lack of sleep for the next 3-4 years. It was a really depressing thought.



Monday: Jack decided at lunch time that he wanted to eat my soup. It was tomato-based, so I was slightly worried that the acidity would do awful things to his stomach. But it was organic and didn't have any no-no allergy-causing foods, and I wasn't all that crazy about it myself, so I kept feeding him until he was no longer interested. Half the bowl later, he stopped. Amazing. Ruined the white onesie he was wearing, but that's a small price to pay. It gave me a chance to dress him in his Mizzou outfit with shorts just like his Uncle Tyler's. He got into the tiger spirit by continuing to growl, a move sure to scare away all Jayhawks except his Godmother Melanie.

Later that evening, over the course of about an hour, I got him to eat almost an entire cube of peas, by eating some myself, then offering them to him. As I was explaining the day to Ben that night, I realized that it's really tough to feed him like that--I end up spending the entire time worrying that I'm going to offer too much food, too soon, or in a way that he won't like, and that that will cause him to completely shut down and refuse to eat anymore. By the end of the night, I was a wreck, still convinced that I would never sleep again.



Tuesday: Jack slept like an angel last night. He slept from 9-11:30, 12-almost 6, then 6:15-9:30. Incredible. As luck would have it, I couldn't sleep for half the night, but I did get some good sleep during his long sleeping stretch, only briefly interrupted by a cough at 2:30 that sounded like he was dying (He wasn't. I checked. And checked again. And almost woke him up checking a third time.). I am relieved to know that my desire to cuddle my baby to sleep is not the issue preventing us all from getting a good night's sleep and to know that he can eat, and when he does eat, he can sleep. Whew! Also really glad I didn't have to try to let him cry himself back to sleep. Don't know that I could have actually done that, even if I did check on him every few minutes.


At 11:30 this morning, Jack was really tired, so I put him in his crib still awake, and he fell asleep for his morning nap on his own without crying at all! During that nap, I took the luxury of cooking a real lunch for myself--honey wasabi salmon, baked sweet potatoes (okay, that was partially for Jack, too), couscous, and even a small glass of red wine. So amazing to feel like I can do that instead of having to sleep every second!




This afternoon we went to Clerkenwell Green, a small park around the corner, where Jack discovered grass. After talking to mom about Tyler's eating habits as a baby, I thought I might give Jack a try at feeding himself, to see if he just wanted to be a little more independent. He certainly tries to assert control while drinking milk, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. We brought along chunks of banana and sweet potato, which we fed to one another in small pieces. Jack really seemed to get a kick out of feeding me, as if it was a completely absurd thing for a baby to feed his mommy.



Mission accomplished! Score one for Mommy.