Teddy at 9 months

At the end of January Teddy turned 9 months. I can't believe how the time has flown, except that every time I look in the mirror I can see the growing bags under my eyes that have appeared since his birth. Teddy is the sweetest, most wonderful little boy and has brought us all a lot of joy, but he is an awful sleeper. I'll get into that later. For now, here are a few facts about Teddy:

- He is crawling and can pull himself up on furniture. He used to only army crawl which was really cute.
- He weighs 18 pounds but has only gained four pounds since his two month appointment. He's in about the 50% for weight now.
- He gulps as he eats and was extremely difficult to burp as a baby. He can now burp himself except when he is nursed to sleep- then I still have to burp him before I lay him down.
- He will eat almost anything. He's getting really good at eating finger food and prefers them to baby food.
- He has six teeth: two on bottom and four on top. He has earned the nickname "Jack-o-lantern smile" from the family who sits behind us at church. He was really into biting while nursing for awhile but we kicked him of that habit quickly.
- He is the most intense and alert baby you could ever imagine. He is constantly moving and taking in the world around him. This may contribute to why he is a bad sleeper? Who knows.
- He loves to give big slobbery kisses.
- He has learned to clap and can sign "more" when eating.
- He loves to get into everything. With Nayeli I never had to put locks on my cabinets but as soon as Teddy was crawling it became a necessity.
 - He LOVES hair. He often pulls and tries to suck on mine. He made me want to cut a pixie cut for awhile, although I'm glad he didn't because he is now more gentle with it and will play with it while he is nursing.  

What else? Here are a few photos to illustrate other things about Teddy:

He loves to be outside.

He is learning the natural consequences of having an older sister, like having to dress in pink sometimes. It's a good thing he's a natural- note the hand placement here.

He loves to put his sticky hands in his hair after eating.

He loves to mooch food from Nayeli.

He also loves to pull her hair. It's caused more than a few tears in our home.

He's discovering our apartment and I now have to keep certain doors closed.

He loves Ben.

As for his sleeping, things are getting better but it has not been an easy road. For the first six months of his life, Teddy woke every 2-3 hours at night. That's not an exaggeration. I did EVERYTHING I could think of, but little changed. Finally, at about six months, I had a heart to heart with Heavenly Father and told him I couldn't do it anymore. I needed the problem to be taken away or strength beyond my own.

Like the loving father that he is, he gave me both things. After my prayer and a blessing from Ben, for the first time since his birth Teddy slept through the entire night. He didn't do it the following night, but it was enough. I felt Heavenly Father was sending me a message. I heard him telling me, "I'm here. You're not alone". Sometimes it is really difficult to be away from family because if I lived closer I could drop the kids off after a bad night with the baby. That's why it was a welcome reassurance to feel that I wasn't alone. I felt him strengthening me and making me feel that I could do it.

I haven't told a lot of people about Teddy's sleep problems because I got tired of the advice. Initially I poured over baby sleep books, highlighting text and dog-earing pages. I talked to mom after mom about their experiences. I created pages and pages of sleep plans titled, "How to help Teddy sleep better". I read article after article on the internet and then... I just felt so stinking confused! I felt everyone was telling me, "If you would just do this..." but I felt I tried everything I was comfortable with doing and nothing got better! Essentially, no one else was living what I was living and no one else could figure out what needed to be done but me. I finally had a moment that the Spirit said to me, "Your kids are your kids. They are not her kids, or their kids, they are your kids. You must be the one to decide what is right for your child". And then I stopped stressing about what I could be doing and just did my best. Soon, things got better. Not perfect, but better.

Most nights he wakes only once, although every once in awhile he's up four times a night. A lot depends on illness, teething, temperature, etc. But this last week was the first time he slept through the night TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! We're making progress people. We're making progress. Besides, he really is such a sweet boy and I love him so much. He was meant to come to our family.