Is there such a thing as the terrible 9 months?

I'm alive!  I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I blogged, but this is why:

He's a cute one, but a handful!  He's 9/5 months old and now has 6 teeth, which he is fond of using to bite me and everything else in his path.  And he just started crawling forward last week, and has taken immediately to finding all things he should not get into.  One thing I had not thought of was the rubber caps on the end of the doorstops. He was popping those off and sticking them in his mouth.  So, my husband super glued them all on.  This little smartie pants then started unscrewing the entire doorstop from the wall and sticking the whole thing in his mouth.  So, now all the doorstops have been removed and placed in a ziploc for future use.  He also makes a bee-line for whatever is in the cabinets when I open them, so I have to be ninja fast at getting what I need out of there.  And, he got into the purell that was hanging off my diaper bag, so now the diaper bag can no longer hang on the back of a chair.  He's keeping me busy!

Now, for the title of this post:  this dude is developing a bad attitude, and I don't like it.  I'm afraid it's just the beginning!  And, I can only assume he inherited this from his dad, lol.  :)  He throws a fit when he doesn't get what he wants or doesn't want to do what you need him to do (like lay still while I change your diaper!)  I know part of this is just being a baby and maybe he's teething or tired at any given point, but this is also making me realize that I'm going to have to WORK to get this child raised right, lol.  And not just raised to be respectful and kind and obedient, but into heaven.  I had hoped that he would just naturally be saintly and perfect, ha ha.  But, what I'm seeing is just evidence that we do indeed have original sin.  

And that has me feeling stressed out at the responsibility!  I'm a researcher and reader.  I read all about babies and breastfeeding before he was born and was super-prepared.  I even planned my own c-section and met with everyone who would be involved and had a detailed birth plan.  I like to be prepared!  So, I need me some books on the faith aspects of parenting.  How do I hand down the faith in a way that his focus in life is on God?  I was not raised with that.  Yes, we went to church, but faith was not the center of our life.  I want to make his journey to heaven easier on him by giving him a better foundation, so that he will naturally seek God and put God as his goal, rather than career, possessions, worldly things.  

How do I start?  What books can I read (other than the Bible and Catechism).  I need some concrete advice, and also age appropriate books for him as he grows up.  Have any of you found books that you like?

Look Who's Laughing

Lots and lots of things happening over the past few months.  He's sitting, scooting backwards, and is working on getting four teeth.  He also just started sleeping better!  Alleluia!  Alleluia! Alleluiaaaaaaaaaaa!  It's like a switch flipped just as soon as he hit 8 months (on July 19).  It's like he just decided, yep, I'll sleep a little bit now.  Thank the Lord!  It is awesome to sleep!  He'll go to bed at 7, and wake once, then sleep until around 6.  Aaaaaagh!  

The other milestone that we're working on is food. This child will put anything in his mouth but food!  And if you put food in there, he makes an awful face and spits it out.  Doesn't matter what texture it is. I've tried solid steamed little pieces of things, mashed things, . . . . it doesn't matter.  I even tried a momsicle (breastmilk popsicle) and that little stinker wouldn't eat that!  And he drinks the stuff all day every day!  Go figure.  

And he's doing really cute stuff like laughing at things that he thinks are hilarious, like this: (for some reason, this town is plagued with flies and every time we open the back door to use the grill or the smoker, they infiltrate, and I go to work eradicating them):

Love this little guy!

What Not To Do

Husband's 45th birthday was yesterday, so I stupidly decided to throw him a birthday party at our house with all of his family.  Yeah, dumb move.  Even dumber, I decided to clean the house beforehand.  With 40 something unruly nieces and nephews in the house, it looks like a bomb went off over here, and I'm find a sticky layer of syrupy nastiness over everything.  Sigh.  And tonight I'm hosting husband's sister and family from out of town for dinner.  So here goes the cleaning process all over again.  Here is my promise to myself: never again until we have a large yard with a barn out back where we can host parties and then just hose it down. 

The Walking Tired

The Walking Tired.  Yep, that's me.  (borrowed that cute little phrase from my bff who came up with it this morning as we were texting about how horribly our babies are sleeping at night.)  Henry has been up hourly after midnight for the last two days and it is driving me insane.  I have googled it and apparently it could be a 4 month growth spurt.  I hope it passes quickly.  It is insanely tiring.  Would make for good torture of your worst enemy.  Husband and I have been taking shifts since 12 weeks, where from 8-1 he will be "on call" and I can sleep, and the rest of the night, it's my turn.  Husband came to bed at 12:15 last night and said he had just put Henry back down.  I figure he'd be good until at least 3.  Nope!  At 1:15 he was up.  So, I nursed him until 2 and put him back down, and that stinker was up at 2:50!  I tried rocking him and then husband gets up because of all the crying and I let him hold him for a while, and then he hands him back to me and says that I "can" bring him to bed (like I need the permission) and he can just put earplugs in.  I was like, "I wish I could do that."  So, from then until 6:30 in the morning, I laid in bed with Henry draped across me, nursing and snoozing, while I tried to sleep.  Needless to say, not much sleeping was done.  

But, big advancement today!  Henry rolled over!  And I wasn't looking.  :(  I put him down on his tummy and was typing a text message and looked up and he was on his back!  But, I grabbed the iphone and waited a bit more, and he did it again.  So proud of him.   Now if he could just be a good boy and do some sleeping!  :)

 

Today we are orphaned

Today, Papa steps down and we are left fatherless.  As one with abandonment issues, I feel abandoned and orphaned.  But, God knew I would feel that way and put it in his divine plan that this very day my bff/godmother would fly all the way from Atlanta to come visit me.  I cannot wait to see her beautiful face when I pick her up at the airport this evening.  Thank you, Jesus.  You know me so well.

Unbelievable

This week I received a letter in the mail from a fertility center that we once sought treatment from (where they told us we had a 3% chance of ever having a baby unless we did IVF and ICSI), urging us to oppose the Sanctity of Human Life Act.  Can you believe that?!  I was so appalled and shocked and miffed by it.  I want to write back explaining the value of human life and why an "embryo" is indeed a human being, which they as medical professionals should kno, and also to explain that they can actually help people better through Napro, and how we had a baby without their immoral help.  I just don't know where to begin.  And, the knee jerk responsiveness in me just wants to write back, "You suck."  I need to take some time to collect myself and write back.  Grrrrr! 

Advice?

I have been MIA lately because being a mother is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I was blessed with a high need baby who likes to nurse all day, doesn't nap at all, and won't go back to sleep after the 3 am feeding.  Needless to say, I barely have time to brush my teeth.  

This poor child is obviously tired, you can see the redness around the eyes and he yawns and is cranky, but he simply will not nap.  The only way I can get him to nap, and it's only an hour, is by wearing him in a wrap carrier.  I downloaded this book today on naps, The No C.ry N.ap So.lution, and started reading it, but got overwhelmed and just started crying.  He started showing sleepiness at 1 in the afternoon, and from that point until 5:30, I was trying to get him to doze off.  I tried swaddling and wearing and nursing, and nothing worked.  I did get him to sleep briefly by nursing him, but then when I put him down in the swing and walked away to finally use the bathroom, he woke up crying.  

I feel like a total failure as a mother.  I worry about him not sleeping. How can his little brain develop if he is wide awake all day and then only sleeps probably 9 hours at night.  That's insane.  Supposedly, a newborn sleeps 16 hours in a 24 hour period.  What can I do?  

And to top it all off, I'm having to fight off the very annoying suggestions by my mother and occasionally my husband to "just let him cry."  I've read enough to know not to do that.  So, while I'm wearing myself out trying to find the magic solution to please my baby, and being so exhausted that I would in fact love to just put him down and walk away but I know that is not good for him, I have to fight off bad advice and suggestions that I am "spoiling" him.  

So, did anyone else have such a high need baby, and how did you get him/her to nap?