The Master Manipulator
You can tell Doodles is the son of a Harvard MBA: he has his manipulation skills down pat, and he's only twenty-one-months old. Doodles hates having his diaper changed. So when I put him on the changing table, he's learned the one thing that will delay poop removal. He looks up at me, smiles, and says, "Cuddle? Hug?" That kid knows I'm am absolutely sucker for the cuddle and that we have a never-refuse-the-cuddle policy in this house. He's learned how to work me.
However, it's causing problems because Doodles needs to stay in his room at night now. For starters, I don't want his staying in his room all night to coincide with the birth of his sister. We coslept with Doodles for six months, so we will do the same with The Occupant. However, it's too dangerous to cosleep with a newborn with a toddler in the bed. So Doodles needs to stay all night in his room. Then, there's the fact that I've now entered that well-known stage of pregnancy called sleeplessness. Lower backaches and the need to pee three times a night (I seem to remember it happening much later in my pregnancy with Doodles). Which doesn't affect Doodles except that I wake up a ton and it wakes him some, so neither of us are getting a lot of sleep.
Ferberizing a baby is terrible. The screaming, the tears, the guilt. And the baby gets upset too. But as miserable as Ferberizing a baby is, Ferberizing a toddler seems near impossible. The other night Doodles woke up around 1 a.m. And he began to cry. Loud, snotty, tearful crying. I tried not to listen. But then he starts in with the "Momma! Momma! Momma!" Gets me right where it hurts. Adam went in to try and calm Doodles down and to explain that Doodles needs to stay in his room, but Doodles simply tries to talk louder. "Up! Up! Up!" And then, the killer. "Cuddle?"
Aaarg! How do you turn down the cuddle? The cuddle is sacred and can't be refused! Which is why Adam goes in at night instead of me. Because that way Daddy is the evil person who refuses to pick up Doodles and Mommy can still be the loving, warm, giver of all cuddles.
Hmmm, I guess it turns out that Adam and Doodles aren't the only masters of manipulation in the house. At least we know Doodles comes by honestly.
However, it's causing problems because Doodles needs to stay in his room at night now. For starters, I don't want his staying in his room all night to coincide with the birth of his sister. We coslept with Doodles for six months, so we will do the same with The Occupant. However, it's too dangerous to cosleep with a newborn with a toddler in the bed. So Doodles needs to stay all night in his room. Then, there's the fact that I've now entered that well-known stage of pregnancy called sleeplessness. Lower backaches and the need to pee three times a night (I seem to remember it happening much later in my pregnancy with Doodles). Which doesn't affect Doodles except that I wake up a ton and it wakes him some, so neither of us are getting a lot of sleep.
Ferberizing a baby is terrible. The screaming, the tears, the guilt. And the baby gets upset too. But as miserable as Ferberizing a baby is, Ferberizing a toddler seems near impossible. The other night Doodles woke up around 1 a.m. And he began to cry. Loud, snotty, tearful crying. I tried not to listen. But then he starts in with the "Momma! Momma! Momma!" Gets me right where it hurts. Adam went in to try and calm Doodles down and to explain that Doodles needs to stay in his room, but Doodles simply tries to talk louder. "Up! Up! Up!" And then, the killer. "Cuddle?"
Aaarg! How do you turn down the cuddle? The cuddle is sacred and can't be refused! Which is why Adam goes in at night instead of me. Because that way Daddy is the evil person who refuses to pick up Doodles and Mommy can still be the loving, warm, giver of all cuddles.
Hmmm, I guess it turns out that Adam and Doodles aren't the only masters of manipulation in the house. At least we know Doodles comes by honestly.
2 Comments:
Jenny,
I loved reading about you and Doodles. My husband and I are about to possibly enter similar territory with our 16 mo. year old--her brother is due in 4 weeks. We've obviously put this day off for as long as humanly possible hoping the magic of sleep would find our home like the tooth fairy. Please let us know via blog how it's going for you, Adam, and Doodles. Like you my husband Randy will be the point guy on this--he's actually a survival trained Army helicopter pilot so you'd like to think he can handle this mission with "Bobia" as I'll call her. We'll see--she is still Daddy's little girl. I know that I am not up to it! Wish us luck!
Ummm... I don't know how to tell you this, but we completely, totally, 100% gave up that battle. Especially now that we're in a small apartment. "There were four in the bed and the little one said, 'Good night!'" :-)
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