And we have...SUCCESS!

Isaac napping in his own bed! I love how he's all curled up with his little bum sticking out :)

Well, at a time it may have been shameful to say, but I've since come to terms with the fact that we have not been perfect parents, and we spoiled this little boy by letting him sleep in bed with us until he was 1 year old. This in no way means I judge anyone else who decides to have their children co-sleep with them. It's always been my philosophy that "Hey, if it works for you, great!" It all started when he was first born, really in the first week, #1: because we loved holding and cuddling him so much, #2: because he had some reflux and we were too nervous about him sleeping on his own and not breathing well. Well, one thing after another, and our "family bed" is what we ended up with! It didn't really bother us but we knew that eventually we would have to get Isaac to sleep on his own and we weren't looking forward to that day! We'll come back to this soon. Recently, one day I took Isaac in when he got sick with a cold just to make sure there were no other infections, and we rechecked his blood count (which was a little on the lower side at his 1-year checkup). It hadn't improved, in fact it went down another point, even though we had started giving him an iron supplement as instructed by the doctor, and now he is considered anemic. So, our wonderful pediatrician Dr. Ferreira sent us to Primary Children's Medical Center to get further blood work done which confirmed that it had gone down even more than just a few days earlier at the doctor's office. So, Dr. Ferreira called me up and spoke with me about the need to get Isaac more foods with a good source of iron and to continue the iron supplement as well. He told me we would have to do the blood work again in about a month up at Primary Children's to see if it had improved. He said we'd most likely be able to find out if it was just a problem with his diet or if he may have been born with a disorder that prevents his body from producing enough red blood cells. Well, up until that point, Isaac had been quite picky about food, not particularly the types of food he would eat, but food in general. He would act very interested in whatever we were eating, but would just taste everything but never really eat anything. So, I took the liberty of deciding that it was time to stop breastfeeding him. He was nursing constantly and that's what he always wanted. And to make it even more difficult, that was his method of falling asleep as well, which made it hard on me. I felt strongly that if I didn't stop breastfeeding him, he wouldn't gain the interest in food that he needed in order to bring his iron levels up. So, that week was interesting to say the least! Isaac did so well, and I was so proud of him, he started eating better immediately, lots of healthy solids, his whole grain cereal, drinking his juice with the iron supplement, drinking milk, etc. It was much harder on me than I thought it would be. For some reason, it didn't really cross my mind the pain I would be experiencing by stopping the nursing cold turkey. Well, to save anyone reading this from too much detail, I eventually resolved the issue and about two weeks later, all the pain was gone. So that was already one big change. Well, the same week, I decided it might be a good opportunity to take advantage of him not having to nurse to sleep to get him sleeping in his own bed. However, I thought maybe gradually we could start with him just sleeping on his mattress on the floor in our bedroom. That worked a few times and he did pretty well, but it was still just hard. I was hesitant to try putting him in his own crib, in his own bedroom, to sleep on his own the same week he already experienced a major change in his life by stopping the breastfeeding. Well, after some discussion and some research, we decided to just go for it. The first night was the most difficult of course, and since Manuel needed the sleep in order to do well in his classes, it was pretty much all on me. This is not to say that Manuel has in no part helped or assisted me in any of this. He has been very supportive (although a little hesitant at first, like me) about doing this. Back to the first night, I just sat on the floor in Isaac's room next to his crib and played a lullaby CD my mom got him for Christmas (very cute by the way, it's a personalized CD of lullabies that include his name in each of the songs). He cried and cried for I would say, an hour, hour and a half or so. It was hard and I just sat there, keeping my head down, making sure not to make eye contact with him. During naps the next day, I slowly moved my way closer to the door when I put him down and he started to not even cry really when I'd put him down. I knew it wouldn't go this way once I'd finally leave the room entirely but it wasn't as bad as I thought. A couple nights later, I finally left the room altogether and he cried for about a half hour and fell asleep. And he has since been sleeping through the night by himself. It may sound silly to some, but this is something I'm extremely proud of because it seemed like such a daunting task, and sometimes it's not easy (naptimes can still be a little harder). But after the first night he slept the whole night, I woke up thinking, "Wow, I can't believe it! It worked!" I think he's sleeping much better now and we are too. On several occasions, we debated with ourselves about getting him to sleep on his own at this age since it can be even more difficult with the onset of separation anxiety in many children this age. However, we decided that if we waited any longer, it might be easier later but it might not be and we weren't sure we wanted to take that chance. And back to the iron issue. Last week, Isaac started acting quite constipated and we figured it was probably from the high iron intake he was now experiencing. So we tried relieving it with pear juice, prune juice, etc. however nothing seemed to help and it only seemed to be getting worse. Tuesday of this week, I finally took him in to the doctor. Dr. Ferreira was out that day, but we saw another doctor who confirmed he was constipated and very much so (3/4 full). Poor guy! No wonder he had been so cranky the last few days! He was probably having a lot of tummy aches and he was so lethargic, sleeping much of the day. The doctor put him on Miralax and said he would have to be on it the duration he will be on the Ferrett's (the iron supplement). So, it may be a few more months, unfortunately. Hopefully we can resolve the issue with the iron as soon as possible so he won't have to be on the Miralax for too long. The doctor said that if children are on it for too long, their bodies can become dependent and it can make future potty training a nightmare. Since the Miralax has started working, Isaac is pretty much back to his normal fun, happy, self. And he's eating so much! His latest favorite is grapes, I swear he can't get enough of 'em!

I better wrap things up here. Valentine's Day was great, stressful, but great. Isaac was ornery (at the time we didn't know exactly why), and we had plans to go out that night to Tucanos, just the two of us and leave Isaac with Manuel's parents. For a while, we thought maybe we shouldn't go since Isaac was so uncomfortable and cranky. But then we decided we'd try to go and call on our way to see how Isaac was doing and we could always turn back if necessary. Turns out, Isaac did great. We were also worried because it was the first time we were leaving him to go out on our own in almost a year! Way too long, I know! Isaac didn't fuss the whole time, he ate well, and it was so nice of Manuel's parents to come up to our place and watch him. We had a great time going out, getting to hold hands again since that doesn't happen too often when we're all out and one of us has to hold Isaac. The food was amazing of course, and we had so much fun talking about the beginning of our relationship, trying to remember the details of how it all started, and our first Valentine's Day together. It was such a special date and we had so much fun, just the two of us. It made me think how much I'd like to start making a history of when we were dating and our relationship from the very beginning. Can't wait to get started on it!

Well, it's just about that time that I need to start getting Isaac ready for bed. Hope to start posting more often as I'm realizing I also need to take more pictures! As always, love to our friends and family!