Today, we were abruptly forced to say goodbye to our beloved cat Alice, with whom we have shared life for more than the past 8 years. She was diagnosed with advanced kidney insufficiency, and we had to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep.Alice was, no doubt, a part of our family, and we will miss her dearly. She had lived with us in 3 apartments in Washington, DC, and our current home in St. Louis (where she had just about the best window sills to sit on and view the world). She was our first pet together, and she'll always have a special place in our hearts.
And while Holden did not have much of a chance to get to know her, I'd like to think that they really liked each other. The only picture I could find of Alice and Holden is before Holden was born -- Alice did seem to be drawn to Holden in the womb, and she would cuddle up with Bryna while she was pregnant. And as we said our final goodbyes to Alice this afternoon, Holden was able to reach out and pet her one last time, too.
Very sorry to hear about your cat... they are such great "people"...I was just reading a lot of your blog since I googled my issues with sleep and found you! We read a bunch, thought you were kinda chill, and decided to venture a question. My husband and I have a 15 week old son and want to use a cry it out method to sleep train, but it's the missed feedings we feel terrible about...did you get your little boy up to nurse, then start over, or do they just go cold turkey? This would involve missing 2 usual feedings...it feels like no one addresses the issue on the net...do I need to get a book or what? Would love to know what worked...
ReplyDeleteHi Steph--once I collect my thoughts I'll try to address your question in a post, but the short answer is that once we did sleep training, our guy stopped waking up at night, so it seems he didn't need those extra feedings. We followed Mindell's method, and she suggested that if they wake up in the middle of the night, just feed them and soothe them as usual. She argues that once they learn how to fall asleep at night they won't wake up as much, and this tended to be true for us.
ReplyDeleteHolden still wakes up sometimes (teething reasons, or just a bad night), and if he fusses for more than 6 or 7 min, I just feed him and put him back in his crib afterward. And since he knows how to fall asleep on his own, he goes right back to sleep afterward. Things really do change once they learn how to fall asleep on their own; it really is amazing!