Torturing the Baby and a MIlestone for Hudson

We all knew it would happen, right? The whole bottle propping thing? It had to be too good to be true. I mean, you can't just put a bottle in the mouth of a baby and then actually get to leave the room! That's just crazy talk is what that is. The magic had to eventually run out along with the formula. Sad, I know. And just like his siblings before him, the baby eventually outsmarts me, and Holden would have it no longer. But lame mom that I am, I actually NEED the baby to sleep. Just for a couple of hours during the day, and maybe a few hours at a time during the night. Ridiculous expectations, right? So when bottle propping no longer had the desired results of a nap, and when awakenings during the night came every hour on the hour, I had to resort to drastic measures.

Here it comes. Brace yourselves.

We were forced to embark on the (wincing) Crying It Out.

The poor, poor Fluffy. He brought it on himself, really. I just could no longer hold him for his entire nap. I usually get absolutely nothing done during the day anyway, and surprisingly his high maintenance snoozes were letting me accomplish even less than that.

So, it started. I had to put him down in his crib. It was 10:00 on the nose. I marked the time so that I could either congratulate myself on the short crying time, or (more likely) use it as a reminder that even though it felt like he had been screaming for days and weeks, it was actually just a few minutes. But then the minutes stretched into 30, then 60. And then at 12:02 he finally gave up. 12:02!!! Two hours of crying. Boy is that kid stubborn. Hudson began to panic. Those two little blue eyed boys have become best friends since all the other kids abandom them for school every morning. Me? I took a deep breath and melted in the quiet.

So that's the torture part. Where's the Hudson milestone you are wondering? Well, let me tell you!

At exactly 12:19 I hear the door opening through the baby monitor. What? Huh? Who could be doing that? It was then that I discovered 17 minutes into Holden's hard fought nap that Hudson figured out how to work our doorknobs! I was super duper proud. And so was Holden, who immediately jolted awake and started cheering for his big brother! Screaming and cheering. We are a supportive family around here, I tell you what. I then proceed to freak out, and then have to comfort both Hudson and Holden. Ah, well. I can just hold the baby the rest of the day and we'll try again tonight. By then he should be completely exhausted and then this plan will work. Either that or pretty soon I'll start entering body building competitions for my awesome upper arms.