Growing Pains

When did we go from this:

To this?:

Incidentally, this is M's very favorite new thing to do.  Seriously, some days it seems like he cannot bear to go more than 60 seconds between efforts.  He'll be playing with one of the jillion toys you see strewn on the floor behind him in the picture above, when he will look up, see one of us sitting on the floor nearby, and remember that he hasn't stood up in ages and immediately drop what he's doing to crawl over and pull or push up on us.  It's adorable. 

I've been hesitant to encourage this too much (see also: standing up in crib), but he is so proud when he does it that I've caved.  I'm probably going to be cursing myself any day now, since yes, I did find him standing up in his crib this morning when I went in to get him (his crib mattress has been on the lowest setting from the beginning, because I had a crib skirt made and didn't really want to have to deal with the length issues, plus we are both tall so it's never been difficult for us to get him in and out comfortably).  Photographic evidence will be provided when I remember to leave the camera upstairs so I can grab it easily in the morning.

We've had a considerable amount of difficulty with M's sleep habits, which I haven't really gotten into much here on the blog because I don't want to bore anyone with the details, but he's made some good progress in the last couple of weeks and we've all been better rested.  It's been a hard road for all of us, and a test of the wills, but we finally feel like we've got a plan that's working for everyone.  I had lots of recommendations for a certain sleep method and we tried all of them, but we've had the best luck following some advice that we got from our pediatrician at Mitchell's 6 month check up.  If you want details, e-mail me.

 I'm afraid all of our hard work may take a few steps back now that he's pulling up.  He was very restless when he first started sitting up by himself as well (which was only a month or so ago).  Every time he woke up he'd practice for a while, and I figure he'll follow a similar pattern now.  But it was going to happen eventually so I guess we're just going to have to be thankful for the little stretch of rest we got and take a deep breath for round 2! 

Life is so fun with him that it helps ease the pain of sleep deprivation.  Plus, his smile melts my heart.  When he gives me the grin, I'm like putty!