Havana's Transition, Jonah's Tests, and Mommy's Hurt Feelings

On Wednesday afternoon, I put Havana down for her nap in her crib! It was somewhat of a sad moment for me because I knew we were going to transition her from a crib to a bed after she woke up. During her nap I ended up taking a picture of her because, well, she is just so cute. :)

her crib.

her last nap time in her crib.

The plan was for Jason to begin the transition shortly after nap time while I played with the children downstairs. However, I asked him if he wanted to work on it himself or if he wanted H to be a part of it. She doesn't always handle change very well and while we have been talking to her for a while about saying "bye bye" to her crib and "hello" to her big girl bed... I thought that perhaps her playing a role in the transition would help.

I'm not sure if that was it or if she was more ready for the change than I realized, but she has done excellent. She was okay watching Jason take apart her crib and she enjoyed watching him put together her big girl bed. She even rushed to put all her toys (that are normally in her crib) on the box springs before we were even able to put the mattress on. That made us think she was grasping the concept that what we were assembling would be her new bed. As we continued to make the bed we kept talking to her about how that was going to be her new bed and that she was not allowed to get in or out of the bed without one of us giving her permission... we also said that she was not allowed to jump on the bed.

That night we tried to make her night time routine as close to normal as possible... one of her favorite parts of her night time routine is to be put into her crib and then we hold Jonah up to her for a goodnight kiss. We made sure everything from Bible story time, to prayer time, to Jonah's kiss was all the same. We also warned her again that she is not to get out of the bed. We always close her door at night and this time we added a baby gate on the outside of the door to make sure if she did get out of bed that she would be limited to her room.

giving Jonah a goodnight kiss. 

We quickly put Jonah down and then we watched our video monitor the rest of the night. She played with her toys, tossed and turned, and rearranged the pillows, but about an hour and half after we put her down... she was asleep! I can't even begin to express how proud of her I was. She did not get out of bed once.

She normally wakes up around 9 or 9:30 in the morning, but on Thursday morning we heard her talking and shifting around in her bed around 7:45. Normally, I would have just left her in there, but since we didn't want her to be tempted to get out of bed, we quickly went in there and kept praising her for how well she had done falling asleep. We also pointed out that she could not get out of bed until we had come to get her.

We were both a little nervous about how her nap time would go because she is normally quite active in her crib for the first 30 minutes or so after I put her down. We did our normal nap time routine and again stressed the rules that she was not allowed in or out of her bed without our permission. She was even more squirmy than the night before and there were several times we held our breath (while watching the monitor) thinking she was going to get down... but she never did. She ended up taking a great nap! Whew.

The same patterns have continued since. She is right now laying in her bed for the third night and has had two successful naps. At dinner she was even talking about how much she likes her "big girl bed" and when you ask her the rules she can say "no jump. mommy and daddy" -- which means 1) no jumping and 2) can't get in or out without mommy or daddy's permission. She also has been ASKING to go to bed (vana's night night time?) when we are downstairs which is a change from last week when she would say, "no, night night times" or "all done night night times." The transition has gone a lot better than I thought it would and I am so incredibly proud of her! I don't think we are necessarily "out of the woods" as I think as she grows more and more comfortable with the new routine she might be more tempted to test the boundaries, but for now, I'm happy for the progress.

Regarding Jonah's health... we talked to his doctor on Thursday. She was very concerned about the white stools and said she has not seen that in regards to a milk allergy. She wanted to look at some blood work to see if there was a risk for cystic fibrosis. In Indiana they do a test for CF before the baby leaves the hospital, but she couldn't find our results (he was born in Indianapolis and we saw a DR up there once and then moved down here and began seeing a doctor before switching to the one we currently have and so somewhere in that process his newborn screening test was lost...). We did find out this afternoon that his screening test came back normal! We are thankful for that news. The doctor suggested we switch to soy milk (not soy formula) and cut out all dairy in his diet. She said it would take a week or so before the milk would be out of his system, but that if his white stools continue after a week then we need to bring them in a stool sample and they will run more tests that way. I'm still a little "nervous" but I actually feel a lot more comfortable with it now. I'm really optimistic that after a week or so on soy that he will improve and then we'll just have to worry about a dairy allergy and nothing else.

Tonight we went to the zoo (a favorite activity of ours) and we had a wonderful time until we were walking out. Havana and Jonah were both in the stroller and as we were approaching the exit there were three older kids (I would guess between the ages of 6 and 9) and they were a few feet in front of us. As they walked out the girls were screaming "bye bye zoo." Well, as we approached the exit Havana thought she would join and so she yelled at the top of her lungs "bye bye zoo" -- and she kept repeating it and laughing. The little boy who was with the girls said, "do you hear how she said that?!" then the three of them would repeat "bye bye zoo" just as Havana said it. This BROKE my heart. Havana thought they were playing with her, but I  could tell they were making fun of her and snickering at how she was saying it. I stared at their mom who did nothing. Whenever they would repeat what havana was saying I would try to talk to Havana in order to cover up their comments. I wanted to start crying, but figured if Havana didn't realize what was going on I didn't want her to see me upset. So, I stayed upbeat but told her a million times how much I loved her and how special she is (Jonah too as he was there... :). Still, now, a few hours later, I'm not sure how to process all of that, but I do know there is nothing that can prepare a mommy's heart for that moment. Wishing I could delete it from my memory. I'm sure this will not be the last time someone makes fun of Havana, but goodness, it makes me want to keep her in bubble and surrounded only by people who love her and are kind to her. If only, right?!