Darby the Nut

My child is a nut. He really is. I just had to tell you all about the new thing he is doing... Darby is in love with his crib.

Ever since he was born, I always lived by the rule that I'd wait until he is crying or whining until I get him up from his bed. It always worked well. As an infant, he'd coo for a while and then let me know he was ready to get up. As he got older, I was glad to live like this, because he might wake up from a nap, about an hour into it, and he'd play for a minute or two, then he'd fall back asleep and sleep for another hour! Which was great...

Then last week came... and he woke up at 8am, I heard a toy rattle, and closed my eyes again because I was sure he was going to want me in a couple minutes anyways... 9:30am rolls around and I wake up again, and look in the monitor, he's just playing... i shook my head and smiled and closed my eyes because surely he was going to want up any moment and I'd wake up and go get him... 10:45am rolls around and I woke up and jumped out of bed! I was so confused/worried, but I went in to Darby's room and he was just hanging out, having fun. I couldn't believe it.

This happened again the next day, but this time I got up at 9:30am.

This keeps happening... if we didn't 'have' to get up early to do therapy, who knows how long I would sleep while he played! If I didn't have things in his crib that made noise, who knows when I'd wake up!

As I write this, he has just fallen asleep. I put him down at 2pm, for his nap. It is now 3pm and he just fell asleep. He was playing and giggling this last hour... what a nut. I've told his therapists about this and they just say, "thats good independant play!". So I dont feel as bad.

All that being said... here are Darby's stats, as he had his 15 month well baby check this week.

Weight- 20.2 lbs - 3rd-5th percentile :o/
Height- 31.25 inches - 50th percentile
Head Size - 44 cm - smaller than usual, but i can't comment much about it since he has a shunt

Developmentally-
He just started being able to stand at the couch this week, unassisted. It lasts for less than a minute, but its a huge milestone for him. His PT is over the moon about how well his standing is doing. Just this morning he was doing some pulling up to the couch with his OT. He has also been doing some crawling actions with his therapists... they support most of him on his hands and knees and he shows some actions of putting his hands forward and his knees forward. Its great :o) of course he doesn't do any of this for his parents, but he will eventually.

I have more to post soon, but I better be going to do whatever I can do while the baby sleeps!