We were first woken up by our sickly diabetic cat puking up all over our bedspread at 4:00am in the morning. Lovely, isn't it?
After changing the bedspread and cleaning up the floor and Logan's tent (which was on the floor near my side of the bed, where I essentially threw Sanka the minute I heard her gagging on top of me), we settled back into our deep sleep - only to then be woken by little Logan next.
*sigh*
Jon covered the first shift - feeding him a bottle and putting him back to bed pretty quickly. But at 5:00am, he woke up crying again and wasn't able to fall back to sleep himself. So, I took this shift, and went in to pick him up and console him. I didn't arm myself with a bottle because I thought, he JUST had an entire bottle of warm milk like 20 minutes ago, he couldn't possibly need any more.
Boy was I wrong. And what's more, my crying son let me know.
He kept signing "more" to me in between his sobs and then pointing to the (closed) door of his room. I asked him, more? You want more of what? And he furiously nodded "yes", tears streaming down his face.
I thought, well what could he possibly want more of? He's just tired and upset and needs to sleep, as I dismissed the signs and continued to rock and cuddle with him.
He PUSHED me away and signed "more" again, much more deliberately. I thought, well, he just had a bottle, perhaps he wants more milk? So, I asked him, are you hungry? He nods an emphatic "yes" and then signs "hungry" followed by "more" and additional head nods.
I was amazed at how much he was communicating with me, even in the most distressful situation it seemed. I called out to Jon to get me another bottle, and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what Logan needed. He polished the bottle off and then snuggled back into my arms, totally content and singing to himself as I rocked him in the dark (and not waking up on his own in the morning until we came in to get him ready for school!).
I was still in disbelief at what had just taken place - exactly *how* much Logan was growing up and communicating on his own. It's truly amazing.
And, who knew? Listening to your baby and watching for the signs is all you really need to succeed at this parenting thing.
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5 comments:
How long have you been working on signing with Logan? We have been thinking about it though I'm nervous we have waited to long...thoughts?
That is amazing about the sign language! I have always wanted to do that with Robert but I never got around to it.
oh - let there be no mistake - his success in signing has everything to do with his teacher, Miss Kim! :) She is awesome and we love her. And, because she's been working on it every day with him at school, we just try to reinforce and encourage it at home now too. :)
(Renee - I don't think you've waited too long at all! In fact, I started with Logan on my own around 5-6 months and it was just too difficult and he didn't pick it up right away so I got frustrated quickly. Miss Kim didn't really start with Logan on a daily basis until he was about 11-12mths old, so I think you're still in the right age bracket if you wanted to start now.) :)
god I love that kid.
Very cool! It's so nice when you know EXACTLY what they want.
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