It seems that one quality parents need to have is to be really stubborn - more stubborn than your children. I'll give three examples from today. First, I had to be really resolute in not giving Ian any bites of food if he was crying, batting the spoon, etc. He wouldn't cooperate during meal #1 today (which meant he went 15 hours without consuming any food or drink). Thankfully, he got with the program at meal #2 (around 9am). I purposefully gave him something that isn't as objectionable to him and also was very calorically dense. I mixed a whole banana with a little water and two packets of apple cinnamon oatmeal in the Magic Bullet. He consumed that over meals #2 and 3, which means that even though he hadn't eaten anything during meal #1, he still had consumed at least 400 calories by spoon. He didn't eat anything at meal #4, but he did eat during his last two meals of the day. So all in all it went better than I expected as he did eat solid food four times today. This meant he only had 4 sippy cups today of almond milk. That's definitely the least amount of "milk" he's ever had in a day. Ian had some eggs for the first time in more than 6 months. It was actually a challenge to figure out what I could make that didn't have any milk or soy in it. I made a pineapple cake, which included 3 eggs. I had to put his piece in the Magic Bullet with some almond milk. He didn't throw up, which means so far so good with the reintroduction of eggs into his diet. We shall see how day #2 of the new protocol goes tomorrow.
Example #2 would also be regarding mealtime. Sometimes I take the easy route and serve French toast for dinner as Nadia and I both enjoy that and it would be weird to serve veggies with French toast. Tonight I decided she was going to eat what Paul and I were having- a casserole that had chicken, stuffing, cheese, green beans, etc. Well it wasn't pleasant at first, BUT because I've been stubborn in the past (many times), the battle really didn't last that long. Whew. Oh and raisins helped. I've learned that raisins are my friend in terms of getting Nadia to eat something she doesn't want to eat.
Example #3 would be regarding Ian's "nap." The longest his nap has been over the past couple of weeks is a whopping 25 minutes. Many days it's only 10-15 minutes long. Yesterday Karen said that no matter what he needs to stay in his crib for one hour, even if he falls asleep in the car earlier in the morning (like he did yesterday at 11am on the way home from the library). From 12:45-1:45pm is his quiet time in the crib. She suggested putting some other toys in his crib in addition to the stuffed animals, and she gave us a large timer yesterday that she said has worked with other children she's worked with. Well the timer doesn't work because the room is too dark. It can't be seen. Yesterday he screamed for almost the entire hour. He never calmed down enough to play. He just stood in his crib quietly for part of the time near the end. Today he cried for 20 minutes, slept for 15 minutes and then cried for the remaining 25 minutes until I got him when his hour was up. I hope it doesn't take too many days (weeks?) for him to figure out he must spend one hour in his crib each afternoon. The good news is that he's sleeping really well at night. Last night he slept 12 hours! I think he's making up for part of his missed nap time by extending his sleep at night.
We had 8 inches of rain in our basement last night. We had raised the furnace/duct work 8 inches a month ago thinking that was more than enough because the last time our basement flooded we had about 4 inches of water. Paul felt badly because he said he should have bought a more powerful sump pump. The reason we had flooding in the spring was because one of the 2 pumps died. This time the flooding is almost as bad as in 1972, which has been the record for a long time (Hurricane Agnes). My university is closed until TUESDAY! That's never happened since I've been teaching there. Thankfully the water level in our basement started receding just before it would have been sumberging the furnace and duct work again. We've been without a water heater for over 24 hours. I miss it. I need a shower. I shampoo my hair every other day, and this morning is when I would have done it so by tomorrow I will have gone 3 days without shampooing, and my hair feels gross. There was enough hot water in the heater for me to run a load of dishes in the dishwasher, and I did a load of laundry using cold water. We live not very far from a river, and all the bridges are closed so we have at most about a 2 mile radius where we can drive from our house. We can't leave our town in other words. The only thing I had on the agenda for tomorrow was a dance with my hubby tomorrow night, but that dance was cancelled. The ironic thing about my university closing is part of the reason they closed is because the town doesn't have much water coming through the pipes. That seems like the ulitmate irony that 30% of the town is submerged under water (the university is high on a hill), but they don't have water (out of their faucets). It really puts our minor inconviences in perspective. No one is needing to rescue us by boat - and that has happened to people in our area. We never lost our power, sewer, water, etc. In the grand scheme of things, we came through unscathed, especially since we had already learned our lesson a few months ago about not having so much stuff on the floor of our basement.
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Sleeping is going much better at our house. Wyatt is still taking two naps. He is not longer crying at bed and nap time when he is put down. What changed it for us was the night light he holds in the bed(toddler safe). I have also made a big deal of putting his toys in with him. In his bed he has two balls, night light, two blankets, and Bible book. They stay in his bed all the time, but I hand each one of them to him every night.
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