Thursday, May 18, 2006

Headline- Baby living in Wal-Mart, Mother astounded at his survival skills.

Where's Levi?



I think I may have accidentally brought home the wrong baby from Wal-Mart a few weeks ago.

I say Wal-Mart because I so rarely go anywhere else. I wish I could say Target, Whole Foods or just any other store other than the giant Wally World. My Super Dee Dooper Wal-Mart has undergone a face lift and painted everything the color of what I like to call "Oops" paint. It's this brownish, mauvish, greyish, in other words putrid color. I think someone must have said, "We can't sell these millions of gallons of returned paint, so let's dump them all together and paint our store!". The result is less than lovely.

Now, back to the baby.

Levi has reverted back to his old way of sleeping. He's waking up just as Clay and I are going to sleep. Our attempts to let him cry himself back to sleep have failed, since he can climb out of his crib and come find us. When we rescue him from his obvious misery he only wants to straddle me and lay his little silky head on my right shoulder...not left no, no, that is obviously uncomfortable for him. Once he has found his comfort zone, which is me, he instantly falls back asleep.

He has also become very snuggly as of late. He just can't get enough of me. I have received so many gushy kisses that I've stopped asking for them. He follows me around everywhere and needs to have me in his line of vision at all times. He holds his hands up for me to hold him. This is the child that usually wants nothing more than to escape my grasp.

My mother and sister have both posed the question, "Is he teething?". Well, yes, but does that make him act like a complete stranger? How do I get him to start sleeping through the night again? If I have to admit that I am not the child rearing expert that I've been posing to be, no, I'm sure I still have expertise, this is not my child. I think I better get back to Wal-Mart and put up some posters of my missing baby.

In the mean time I know you would love to give me advice about how to take care of the sleeping problem. I'll take your advice and test it on this baby. I'm sure his mother won't mind if I help her out a bit.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried to hog-tie him?

Richard H.

April said...

Richard do you use a square knot with that? I'll try tying the limbs behind his back to see if that works better than the tradtional way.

Anonymous said...

Nevr had an out of bed climber...and really hope I don't. But let me know what you figure out for future reference.

Abby said...

Sorry about the sleeping troubles, April. We have had that problem on and off ever since we left Birmingham with August. I can't do the cry yourself to sleep thing either because of the shared room situation. Plus, if I have to be awake to hear the crying, I might as well be awake with peace and snuggling instead. The only way we have ever found an end to the cycle is when a whole bunch of people start praying. I know that sounds sort of "hoodoo voodoo" but it is the only way we ever get back to sleeping through the night. I'll put y'all on my "list" today :) I'll be eager to hear any practical advice. I don't like the Super Nanny and I think her advice is pretty rigid a lot of times (I guess it's meant for people with no control or boundaries though) but she does have lots of strategies to keep your child in bed at night if you get desperate.

April said...

Thanks Abby,
I appreciate prayers for my children. I'm with you I would rather snuggle than lay in my bed and listen to the screaming.

Anonymous said...

Well, back to Wal-Mart...

The new walmart throws me off. I haven't noticed the new paint color, but that's probably because Jacob wails the whole time I shop and while the remodel was going on, they stopped selling popcorn chicken in the deli area. That was an ordeal because Isabelle wants to talk to me the entire time I shop and for the past two years I've told her, "If you be quiet and let me think, I'll buy you chicken poppers before we leave!" Suddenly they were out of the picture and Isabelle could be heard howling along with Jacob. (as the older women walk past me and smile...) Oh man, kids do not like a change in the routine! Thankfully the poopers are up and running again. Whoops! I mean "poppers".

BUT! speaking of poop and walmart... Isabelle always has to go poop "weally bad!" when I'm halfway through my shopping there. Always. It's nearly impossible to take her to the bathroom with a baby in the carseat and a diaper bag. (How can I hold all that while trying to wipe her?) Well, they installed AUTOMATIC flushers in their new bathrooms. *evil mom laugh* Now she has no problem holding it until we get home.