Monkeys
Sleep Terrorist Takes Down Parents
College and professional sports coaches are often quoted as saying that nothing good ever comes from a phone call that wakes them up at 3am. The same can almost be said for parents who get woken up by tiny sleep terrorists like my 4-month-old daughter Maddie. OK – that’s not true at all, when I see that smiling little face, it really doesn’t matter what time it is, even though we have been stunned awake at 3am on back-to-back mornings.
The interesting thing is that the baby is waking up very happy. There’s no anger, she’s just impossibly wide awake for 3am. As parents, we take full responsibility for the baby’s recent sleep issues. We recently changed some of our sleep procedures for Maddie and obviously she has some objections she would like to voice. We recently moved the baby out of our room and into the crib in her own room. So far, she’s not a big fan of this shift and I have to admit that I really miss having her in the same room with us.
I have to admit that the lack of sleep has been a little bit debilitating and the baby’s temper tantrums during naptime are completely off the chart. She screamed (and I mean screamed) for ten full minutes every dang time I tried to put her down for a nap.
However, the process of building good sleep habits must press on and if Maddie is forced to take naps with her PaPa, he really couldn’t be happier!
What do Kisses, Raspberries and Monkeys Have in Common?
There are two things in this world (besides food) that I know Maddie loves so far. Kisses and Raspberries – we also believe that Maddie really digs the concept of monkeys, but we’ll get back to that later.
Let’s start with kisses. (You know what they are)
Maddie didn’t necessarily love them at first, but it’s safe to say she has really come around. When the little girl starts working herself up into a lather, a few well placed kisses on the cabeza seem to do the trick. I’m not saying these strategic smooches will ward off evil or hunger – but they seem to have an impact on Maddie’s general disposition.
Once a couple of quick kisses are delivered to the cheek – she looks up quizzically and seems disappointed if a few more are not close behind.
Let’s move on to raspberries. (Not the fruit!)
The definition of a raspberry (verb) is to deliver a rude noise by putting your tongue between your lips and blowing. This causes ones lips to vibrate and produce a noise reminiscent of flatulence.
However, if you put these same vibrating lips against a ticklish area like the tummy – the baby seems absolutely delighted.
I must admit that my initial motivation was to wake up the baby when she kept falling asleep in the middle of her feeding time. However, since the discovery that Maddie loves it – It is now used to entertain the baby when she is feeling a bit fickle.
Finally, we move on to monkeys. (Yes, the furry mammals)
We have no idea if Maddie really loves monkeys or not. We have them on her clothes, her shower curtain and even her swaddle blankets. What we do know, is that when Maddie is swaddled inside of her baboon blanket – Maddie starts chewing on the chimps. This always triggers Gina’s now famous saying for the baby, “Don’t eat the monkeys, Maddie!”
Stay Home PaPa 