Sleep Training = Crazy Pills

Jaxon will be 10 months tomorrow... where has the time gone?  My tiny baby is no longer tiny.  Jackie crawls around everywhere, pulls himself up, climbs and walks along the couch.  He has become very independent.  He loves swimming, taking baths, and playing outside.  He loves playing with his brother and thinks Maddox is absolutely hilarious.  But more than anything, Jaxon loves and is completely obsessed with food.  Every time any one of us has food, Jackie screams and screeches at the top of his lungs until we give him a bite.  When he wants another bite, the whole neighborhood knows about it and we just can't seem to shovel the food in fast enough.  He is so vocal and has quite the temper. The last month I have been working on sleep training him and have realized just how deep his stubbornness runs.  Jaxon hates his crib.  He will sleep next to me on the couch, he will sleep next to me in my bed and he will even sleep in his bouncer in the family room.  But he will not sleep in his crib unless I wear him out which takes 1 to 2 hours and even then, the first time he wakes up, he immediately cries and stands up and will not go back to sleep.  To this day, he has not fallen asleep on his own in his crib.  So every night I nurse him to sleep in my bed and then carefully try to transfer him into the crib.  I have about a 70% success rate.  Then about 1 hour later, Jaxon wakes up screaming.  So I rock him to sleep and carefully place him in his crib.  Immediately, he wakes up and screams and I walk out and let him cry for about 10 minutes.  Then I go back in and start the process over again.  These intervals of rocking, transferring, crying last about an hour until he gets so tired that he gives up the fight and lets himself sleep in the crib.  After 2 to 4 hours which is now in the middle of the night, he wakes up angry that he is in his crib and cries until I either rock him again or let him into my bed.  I usually let him into my bed.  It's such a hard process.  In Jaxon's mind, I should lay down with him in my bed and nurse him all night every night. I hate sleep training and if it were up to me, I would let me babies sleep with me forever.  But Allan had had enough and I could tell it was time for us to have our bed back.  Plus, once Jackie could crawl, I couldn't leave him in my bed alone because he would crawl right off.  It is very nice having that one hour to ourselves with the kids asleep and in bed.  So that's my struggle right now- sleep training.  Jackie is very healthy and still in the 65th percentile in height and weight like he has been his whole life.  However, he has a huge head and is in the 85th percentile in head circumference.  He has horrible baby eczema and dry patchy red rashes on his arms, nipples, stomach, shoulders and back.  He also still has cradle cap even though I've scratched most of his oily scabs off of his scalp.  He got his two bottom teeth finally!  And just the other day, his top tooth cut through.  Nursing has not been fun since he got that top one.  Jaxon has been doing things that show me he knows what's going on.  He has been practicing waving recently and loves to dance.  Whenever music comes on, he starts rocking back and forth if he's sitting or he'll bounce if he's standing.  He also like to try and put clothes on by putting them on his head and pulling down.  Jaxon is also still incredibly ticklish and if anybody touches him on his neck or chest or thighs he giggles and laughs uncontrollably.  Jackie has the quickest hands especially when it comes to food.  He loves food and is always trying to grab people's plates and get his hands on anything edible.  He loves typing on the keyboard of the computer and loves hitting Maddox's ipad screen.  Jaxon is such a good boy and loves playing with toys and reading books.  Most of the time, he is happy, giggly, and playful.  But he can go quickly to his only other state- crying, screaming, screeching and whining.  He pretty much has two moods and there's not a whole lot in between.  I'm glad that he is so expressive and I have never wondered what or how he is really feeling.  I am grateful that he feels comfortable enough to know that I will try my best to meet his every need.  And I'm so grateful that he loves me so much and wants to be touched and loved by me and only me.  Jackie is our baby and he brings us so much joy.  He is the life of our party most of the time and usually the center of everyone's attention.