Things That Go Bump in the Night

Yesterday LR was an angel at practice. He played with one of my retired players on the sidelines for most of the 2 hours. He ate his grapes and cookies which Gigi had lovingly packed for him and was content to hang out on the new blanket we got this weekend. Love the blanket so far. He happily chatted with me in the car. He was saying "Da da da da" and "Ey ey eye." I started saying "ma ma ma ma" from the drivers seat. He was quiet for a minute and then said loud a clear, "Mom!" So he can mimic now. He's been doing it for a few weeks, and I still think it's fun to get him to say "Mom."

After we got home he had a small dinner and then enjoyed his bath very much. He has made a game of standing up and me signing and saying to him "Sit down, please." Then he sits and smiles and I say "Thank you" or "Good boy!" I try to distract him, but sometimes I just have to take him out of the bath. The bedtime routine was uneventful. Daddy got home in time to put LR to bed and he was quiet right away. Must've been tired.

Around 1:30 he woke crying. I was at a weird point in my sleep cycle, so I was completely disoriented when I woke up. I thought it was 6am, so I got up and went and picked him up. I looked at his clock as I lifted him an it was then that I realized my mistake. 1:30... Crap! Usually I would've left him there to fuss back to sleep, but too late now. I tried bouncing him, but he seemed wide awake. He nuzzled in to my arms as I bounced him, but he wasn't too interested in sleeping. He just wanted to cuddle. Finally, after 25 minutes of bouncing, my back and arms exhausted, I put him back in the crib and walked out. He started to really scream. I listened for 8 minutes and as I asked Daddy to go in and give it a try we heard a loud crash. I ran into LR's room to find him sitting on the floor in front of the crib. He was screaming and scared and we were shocked. Somehow he had launched himself over the crib railing. We've seen him try to scale the gate, but I never imagined he could climb the crib railing. It was at least chest high! We checked for injuries and when we didn't find any, I took him to the living room to soothe him. I turned on Sesame Street and he quieted down to the occasional post-crying hiccup and sniffle. Feeling worried and guilty, I held him while he watched. It didn't help that 3 nights ago I had a nightmare about him having brain damage and an oddly dilating eye. As he watched TV, I checked his pupils, but didn't see any sign of concussion.

Daddy went to the basement and found the Allen wrenches. He came up and lowered LR's mattress to the lowest setting. By 3:15, I was falling back asleep, but LR was still wide awake. Daddy took him at 3:15 and ended up doing a mini bedtime routine to get him back to sleep by 4. I expected LR to sleep in, but he was awake at 6:30 like clockwork. I just called Gigi and she said he's a little grumpy this morning. I told her to expect a long nap.