floordiving

Ammon and I have had a pretty good day. We both seem well-rested from last night, which has put both of us in much better moods. Last night Ammon only got up every 3 hours – which is better than 2 – and went right back to sleep after eating. Today, we have enjoyed lots of playtime. Ammon is really starting to like being on his tummy and holding his head up so that he can look around. He tries to get his knees under the rest of his body so that he can scoot; however, he hasn’t figured out how to do this while he is holding his head up. This results in his legs shooting straight out with his feet up in the air… minus the ground he could be skydiving. Maybe we should call it floordiving...

Ammon and I also watched Sesame Street’s Sing Yourself Silly. He really liked “Jellyman Kelly” by James Taylor – one of my favorites. He fell asleep before we got to my other favorites: “Mary Had a Bicycle”, and “Put Down the Duckie”. We’ll have to try again tomorrow… I want to watch.

Ammon actually fell asleep in his swing today… hooray! We can add this to the one other time that he hasn’t had to be rocked to sleep. This is all well and good; however, we are trying to reinforce the habit of Ammon sleeping in his crib (rather than someone’s arms). So, the “routine” for today has gone something like this:

Put Ammon in crib
5 minutes later: screams of rage
Pick Ammon up; Ammon falls back asleep right away
Wait 5 minutes to ensure deep sleep (i.e.: snoring)
Put Ammon in crib
5 minutes later: screams of rage

Repeat... and repeat... and repeat.

We have tried what the books call the “offer pacifier, bounce mattress and shush loudly” philosophy to have Ammon put himself back to sleep, so as not to fall into the “rock-to-sleep” trap. This, for the record, does not work with all children. Once Ammon sees another human being in the room, all bets are off for him doing the deed himself. Occasionally, Ammon will only whimper a little, and go back to sleep. This only delays the screams of rage 5 more minutes. Not helping matters is the car alarm in our complex that routinely goes off shortly after Ammon has gone down for a nap or bed. You can guess the rest.