Things are getting into a groove in the Ferrara Family household. Oscar is starting to understand that sleep actually will not kill you. He did his first ever 8-hour stretch a few nights ago, coincidentally or not on the day I started having him cry it out to go to sleep. It's a couple weeks earlier than I did this with Annie but when you have an energetic three-year-old waiting for you at the end of that long night, a mom has to kick it into gear a little sooner with the sleep thing. I actually had to wake him up at 3 am to feed him. It was a glorious thing. But no sooner had I bragged about it on Facebook than that night he was back to his 3- or 4-hour stretches of sleep at night. But last night, he did a 6-hour stint, so I think the light is starting to appear at the end of this very, very long tunnel of sleep deprivation. Of course, no sooner did I type this (at 8:20 at night) did Jay pop down to tell me he's up again. Can he read my mind!? One cute development, when he's about to do a big sneeze, he does this prelude that sounds like an old man sneeze, he does a big, "whaaaaahhhhhh!" then pauses before the sneezes come. I hope we get it on tape at some point. It's hysterical. At his last doctor's appointment he was still in the 25th percentile of growth even though he looks huge to me. He was 11 pounds at about 9 weeks. He has a little reflux which may be contributing to the lack of sleep, but hopefully the Zantac will help. So far, I haven't seen too much difference. Maybe I'll cut back on the chili.
Annie still loves him. It's been hard for her to negotiate the substantial amount of time I've had to spend with him, feeding him, changing him, getting him to sleep. But she's done awesome, actually. In fact, her pretend play has blossomed in the absence of my attention. She makes these elaborate "cribs" and houses for her lovey, Monkey (she's never been one for dolls). The cribs make it into her doll stroller so it's a mobile sleep unit. She's also trying to act older. She now puts on this affected body language sometimes when she's trying to explain something to me, she puts her arms up in the air and waves her hands as she talks, always starting her sentences with "Weeelll, actually, ..." The other day, she dropped a cup of water on the floor by accident, and in my end-of-the-day frustration, I sighed and said "Annie, ugh." She looks down and says, "I just don't get it." So she keeps me sane and smiling. Thank you, Annie.
I'm posting a video here of the two of them. You can see she's already taking charge. Listen close, or you may miss her lesson in etiquette.
