Grumble 2) My wonderful, wonderful child will not sleep. I haven't slept through the night in nine months but it was tolerable when he was sleeping three and four hour stretches. We even made it to six and seven hours on some nights and that was great. But all of the sudden since we got back into town he has gone back to sleeping only in one hour intervals and I am just run ragged. We've tried a lot of different things. The pediatrician has suggested a method for babies over 6 months that we will probably try for a few days next week. It involves letting him cry for 10 minutes before picking him up when he wakes up at night which hurts my heart to even think about but I believe being alone with him during the day in the fatigued state that I am in is becoming unsafe so I've got try something. (Not that I'm on the brink of anything intentional or anything like that. I'm just starting not to feel safe driving him places, operating the stove, etc.)
Update: This post took a long time to write so I can tell you that this method totally worked as promised. By the third night my sweet baby began sleeping multiple hours at a time and just yesterday slept 13 hours without waking. That doctor is likely to get a big wet kiss on the mouth at our one year checkup.
Grumble 3) Why is it that with all the respect, power, and obvious intelligence Michelle Obama possesses, she has decided to avoid all the real issues facing this world in order to champion the cause of making life harder for fat kids? I mean for one I agree with Melissa at Shakesville the whole campaign is totally ableist. There are lots of people for whom "Let's Move" is simply not an option. Secondly, I thought it was common knowledge among educated people that childhood obesity rates had leveled off? And that attempts to break out of one's general setpoint range fail 95% of the time and usually result in further weight gain and other health problems? She's not even taking into account that a large amount of the previous rise in children's weight can also be attributed to medications for mental illness that have become more widely used due to reduced stigma and furthered progress in the field of child psychology. She's also not addressing (as far as I can tell) the issue of many children not having a safe space where they can "move" or play. (The surgeon general is talking about this particular issue, so that's good.) I really just don't understand it. All the credible research (i.e.not funded by a diet company) that I've read also suggests that weight is not even a health disadvantage, but rather it is the way doctors' perceive and treat fat patients that leads to disparity of outcomes. This is what happens when epidemiological studies become the conclusion rather than the starting point. Correlation does not equal causation! Grr!
BTW, I completely support all initiatives to make people healthier. I would love to see all neighborhoods have safe green spaces to run and play in. I would love to see healthier foods made cheaper so that the average person could routinely afford them. I would love to see vending machines and fast food chains banished from public schools. I would love to see thoughtfully structured physical education programs. I just don't see why body shame has to enter into it.
