Stubborn

So I have come to see in the past few days that my little Will is as stubborn as they come. He is sweet, he is smiley, he is smart and boy is he stubborn! He knows what he wants and that is THAT! As I mentioned in the  last post, he took very well to our little middle of the night cuddle and nursing sessions and wanted to make them a regular part of our routine. Now that we can safely say that he is better it was time to toughen up and "let him cry it out." In the past, with Jack, I was pretty good at this. It would pull slightly at my heart strings, but I knew deep inside that it was what was best for him and for us. He is now a great sleeper and goes to bed very easily. With Will, it is actually harder for me for one reason- he and Jack share a room and a nightmare to me would be to have Will's desperate cries wake Jack up and then I have the 2 of them to get back to sleep. So we settled in the other night and I prepared myself and Tom on the game plan. No talking, No picking up, All business. We would give him 10 minute increments and then give him a little back rub and give him back his binky. The first night-he slept the whole night. I woke up energized after FINALLY getting a full nights sleep. The next night-he cried for 2 hours! Screaming at times! It was HORRIBLE. He was exhausted, but his stubborn side WOULD NOT LET GO. Just when we thought that he was falling asleep and silence would fill the house, he would let out a blood curdling scream. Thankfully Jack slept through the whole thing. At 4am, I had had enough, it was all I could take. I was terrified that if I let him keep crying, that at 5am we would all still be up and that Jack would then get up for the day and I would be a total zombie all day. So I caved and I nursed him and we both finally went to sleep. I felt like a failure. I thought-"Oh no, He is NEVER going to sleep through the night again. How are we going to keep going on like this?". In reality, it isn't that bad. He has had good nights with no waking up, he has had bad nights where he gets up once or twice. I have been able to get him back to sleep without having to nurse him, so I think we have broken the biggest "bad habit"  and are well on our way back to his old sleep patterns.

If you look closely you can see the 2 little teeth on the bottom! 

He hates being in the "seat", but loves being underneath. 

Brothers.

Since I have not been working since November, I have been able to exclusively nurse Will. It has been great. I still pump in the morning to help to replenish the supply of milk that I had to throw out after our drive down to SC and to use when I make him cereal. I like having some back up milk so that Tom can give him a bottle or sippy if I have run out. The other morning I went out for a few errands and I get a text from Tom-Will is refusing to take the milk in a sippy or in a bottle. Stubbornness prevails and he just wants his Mama! I am shocked. He drinks from a sippy at every meal with no problems, but it always has water in it. I have an overnight trip planned for a few weeks from now and I started to get worried that he wouldn't drink ANY milk while I was gone. A new plan has been put into action. I am going to give up my favorite feeding-the before bed one-to Tom so that Will can get used to taking milk from someone else. I will break this kid in! I also started giving him some milk in a sippy with his dinner. I switched the type of sippy we were using too. Both of these efforts have helped and I know my chubby bubby will not go hungry when I am away. Daddy will just have to figure it out :).

Until next time here are some new pictures of the boys.

Love.