Thursday, January 12, 2006

Jack's barking again

He's been mucus-free for nearly two entire weeks and I was just starting to take his health for granted. But, not so- last night I woke up at 1:00 to his barking cough, felt bad for him and sat with him for an hour.

Here's the thing about parenting: everyone says be consistent, yet everything is on such a case-by-case basis. For example, Jack's been getting up a bit more often at night, and he's beginning to expect that we will come in and sooth him. Understandable, because, well, as parents, it's our instinct to sooth. But, too much sooting becomes a problem. And, there's no clear demarcation of the boundary here- only subtle signs like lengthier crying to let us know we've moved on from soothing to coddling. Last night was an obvious (?) exception. If he feels like shit, he needs some comfort. I sat by his crib, rubbing his head through the bars, knowing that when (and if) he gets rid of this cold, that we'd be going through some sleep training to remind Jack that yes, indeed, he can fall asleep back on his own.

Jack turns 18 months on the 15th - it's my goal to keep his blog updated more frequently than the once-a-month posts that seem to be ocurring. In the midst of the balancing act that is parental love, I'll be posting some pictures soon.

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