Hello Y’all!

Can I just start off by saying… GOD IS GOOD!?!?!

First, I apologize for taking so long to update you guys on the progress of my sweet nugget Jonathan! Life has been so busy and as much as I thoroughly love blogging, real life comes first. I’m hoping in the future I have a better balance so that I can offer better content at a consistent pace.

If you remember, when Jonathan was 10 months old, I posted a little venting session about my main frustrations with him. He wouldn’t sleep, eat, or drink from a bottle. If you don’t remember this post, you can read about it here!

Johnny is now 18 months old and is a ball of energy! I cannot keep up with this guy sometimes. He loves rough housing with his brothers, he loves cuddles with his mommy and wrestling with his daddy. He’s very friendly, talkative, so observant, smart, and still as cute as ever!

The last 8 months have had their highs and lows, but overall, there were more successes than failures. Thank the Lord! I honestly felt like there would be no end to the madness and maybe some moms don’t think the issues I had were real issues but for me, they were major issues! Now that things have gotten better, let me update on how Johnny is doing in these 3 areas.

He Refuses To Drink From Bottles!

The key to overcoming this challenge was ultimately persistence and consistency. I started off by eliminating 1 breastfeeding session a day during the daytime and each day trying to replace that with a bottle feed. In the beginning he would refuse the bottle and I would just let him cry, rock him to sleep, and then put him down for his nap. I think it took a little over a week to get him to finally take the bottle during the day. And even that was gradual, he started by fighting off my attempts to put the bottle in his mouth, and then he’d eventually start sucking and then spit it out, until finally he drank an entire 4 ounce bottle. This process involved a lot of wasted pumped breast milk but it was worth it for the end result. Once he took the afternoon bottle, it became easier and easier to give him more and more bottles. I honestly can’t remember when it happened (mommy brain much??) but he is now completely weaned and even when I offer to breastfeed him, he refuses. He is drinking from bottles before his naps and sippy cups for everything else.

He Eats Almost No Food!

My second issue was that he wasn’t eating food, like almost nothing at all. And honestly, I can’t really provide a clear explanation on how I got him to start eating. I can’t even say it was anything that I did. He just took it upon himself to start eating one day and has not stopped since! This guy eats so much, all the time, and I can’t feed him fast enough! I had to be consistent with offering him food daily in all flavors, shapes and forms, and eventually he just…ate! I probably stressed out about this part more than I needed to because of the fact that he was still healthy and gaining weight. But you guys know one of the ways a mother, or any woman for that matter, shows love is by feeding someone. And it broke my heart that he wouldn’t eat but when he was ready, he did what he wanted and now sits at the table with us for every meal with his own little place setting and feeds himself (with lots of help from mommy and daddy).

He Will Not Sleep Through The Night!

Ok so, to be honest, he still doesn’t sleep through the night all the time. Some nights he does, and some nights he wakes up once or twice (or maybe more) BUT, he is at least sleeping in his own bed and doesn’t need to be rocked to sleep anymore. I give ALL credit to my husband for this! When I tried to put Jonathan down at night, he’d cry and cry and it’d be a dance of me going in and out of his room to comfort him but truly determined to not pick him up out of his crib. Now I should add, in our household, I never require my husband to wake up in the night for any of our babies. As tired as I am, he still has to go to work in the mornings and I can probably find time to nap in the day when I’m at home and of course, he can’t take naps at work lol. So although he does help out on weekends in the night if I need it, he doesn’t usually get up during the week to tend to any crying babies. I need my man well rested  so when he goes to work he can do his job and keep a roof over our heads lol, can I get an amen from my fellow wives??? Now, with this odd situation that Johnny was presenting to us, Andre decided to step in one night. He heard the baby crying, saw me crawling out of bed for the ten millionth time, and jumped up out of the bed, marched into the baby’s room, looked right at the baby and said in a stern voice “Jonathan! Lay down and go to sleep”. I don’t know why this worked but it did! He immediately went to sleep and I hugged my husband so tight thanking him for his help. It showed me first of all that Jonathan knew all too well how to manipulate his mama. And secondly, it showed me that moms can’t do it alone. If we really need help, we should ask whenever we can get it! Andre committed to waking up with the baby for about a week and it did the trick. Every time Jonathan woke up, he’d give him the same “man to man” pep talk and that boy just listened to his daddy. He woke up less and less and for most nights now sleeps through the night. We’re at the point where when he does wake up, i’m able to put him back to sleep without the help of my husband but I don’t know what would have happened without him there to help me.

So The Moral Of The Story Is???

If there is any advice that I can give to other struggling moms out there, I would say first of all, there is NO set way to raise a child. What works for one baby, will not always work for the next. Don’t be discouraged if you get a ton of advice from “experienced” moms and feel like a failure when it doesn’t work for you. The truth is, their kids aren’t your kids, and their environment is not your environment so don’t let anyone make you feel bad when things don’t work out the way they think it should. However, don’t be unwilling to accept advice (when someone who genuinely cares about you is offering it) because it just might be the thing to do the trick! And as long as those days may seem when things are going wrong, they eventually WILL go right if you don’t give up! Don’t be too hard on yourself, I am one to struggle with this one so I will take my own advice as well lol. Ask for and accept help when you need it. There are plenty of spouses, grandparents, family members and friends who are willing to help if you reach out to them once in a while. Sometimes a helping hand is all you needed the whole time.

I am so glad to be past this phase with my Nugget and I really really hope that you are encouraged by this post. Be strong mamas’, Be strong!

Hugs & Love ❤

Lilly at Home