Frankie Update - September 2006

Frankie’s been sleeping in his OWN room in his OWN bed with some success since the beginning of the month. Since any success was an improvement over waking up every two hours (yes, folks, it was getting that bad), we’re a much happier family as a result. I was finally spurred by my OBGYN’s shocked reaction at how much Frankie was sleeping. I asked him for his advice and he just shook his head and said, “You’ve just got to be more of a hard ass.” We’ve managed to do it without too much “crying it out” or trouble so far (except for a vomiting episode a couple Saturdays ago). We moved the rocking chair into Frankie’s room and incorporated a settling down/dim lights/story time in his room with the door closed with one of us before going down for the night. Since a bath is hardly a relaxing endeavor, we needed to have a bedtime cue (according to all the books and experts). We also have to remove any balls or water bottles from within his scope of vision because once he sees either, it’s all over. He’ll scream and cry “Ball!” or reach for a bottle ten feet away until you are half dead and he can simply crawl over your lifeless corpse. Best to avoid confrontation, I think, as his fixation on these two objects is impenetrable.

We think Frankie will start to walk in the next month or so. He’s standing on his own with and without support and he’s able to bend down and pick something up with both hands and only falls over 50% of the time. Frankie’s added a new word to his vocabulary -- “A Choo!” -- and Dave and I both swear we heard him say “Monkey” the other day; however, it has not been repeated since, so the jury’s still out.