My blogging hiatus was completely unintentional... blame it on the books I've been reading. And crazy baby... she's also a big reason why I haven't been blogging.
The funny thing is, I feel more tired now than I did when I was getting up every 2-3 hours at night to feed her and pump. It's either a) getting up in the middle of the night for five (well, six if you include my hospital stay) months straight is catching up to me b) I just don't remember how tired I really was in those early months or c) both. I'm going to go with c on this one.
So, here I am. Sitting on the couch typing away while crazy baby is peacefully sleeping in her crib. Well, as peacefully as she can sleep. Whoever coined the phrase "sleeping like a baby" clearly had no clue how a baby really sleeps. Or they meant the phrase to mean "grunting, wiggling, squirming, burping, farting, and puking at least hourly all night long." In which case, the saying would ring true. Anyways...
The big adjustment now is her ever-changing schedule. It seems like every week is different as her body is growing and her brain is learning, which translates into changes in her feeding and sleeping schedule. For about a week, she was sleeping straight through the night. Then she started waking up once per night for about a week or two. Then a solid two to three weeks of waking up twice in the night. Now we're back to once, but last night was twice again. It's really not that bad though... it only takes me a total of 30 minutes to prepare her bottle, change her diaper, feed her, burp her, cuddle her, then place her back into her crib. The part of her schedule that has been consistent is her waking time and nap schedule, at least for the most part. She wakes up anywhere between 7:30 and 8:00am most days. Then she eats, plays, and usually gets put into her car seat, much to her dismay, and shipped off to Grandma and Grandpa's house or to Grammy and Pop's for the day. Last weekend, her schedule was perfect. One hour nap in the morning, catnap at lunch time, then a three hour nap from 3pm to 6pm. And lately, she's been in bed asleep around 8pm. Tonight was a little different, as she was just slightly overtired and didn't want to be rocked to sleep. So I put her in her crib and sat nearby while she grunted and wiggled herself to sleep, all the while attempting to suck her thumb. In the process, she gagged herself about a hundred times. One day she'll gain control over those crazy fingers. At least I hope. But anyways, she ended up falling asleep around 8:30ish and has been having little baby dreams ever since. Cute, sweet little baby dreams.
So it's been nice to see a pattern emerging with her. And even nicer to know how well-adjusted she is overall. As long as she gets enough naps during the day and enough sleep at night, she's the happiest, sweetest little girl in the world. And even when she's tired, she'll still smile and get all cheesy with you... until she realizes she's overtired. Then the wailing starts. See below. But it's actually quite an interesting adventure trying to figure all of this out and I get quite a sense of accomplishment when I try something and it works well. For a while, Emma did great with her bath/bottle/swaddle routine. Then suddenly, it stopped working as she started spending more time at her grandparents' houses and less time at home and her schedule changed. Trying to get her into a bath when she got home after barely sleeping during the day made for an incredibly angry, screaming, crying baby. See below. So I adapted and overcame. The bath is flexible- she doesn't always get one. If I'm home early enough and she's gotten a decent amount of sleep, then I'll now give her a bottle first, then a bath, then some quiet activities (like reading a book or some calm play time), then when she gets tired, it's lights out and I offer her a bottle again and let her drift to sleep in my arms. It has worked out quite well lately. But if she's tired, then the lights go out, she gets a bottle, and typically just goes to bed early.
I will overcome the overtired baby syndrome. That's my current struggle. If she doesn't get her naps during the day when she's being babysat, then she goes into nuclear meltdown mode when she gets home. We're talking full-on relentless screaming. It makes her colic days look like a walk in the park. She did this for 45 minutes straight one night and I about lost my mind... there was absolutely nothing I could do to make her feel better. Nothing. I just held her while she screamed until she tired herself out and went limp in my arms, at which point I was far too terrified to put her in her crib, so I held her for a little while to make sure she was good and asleep before I put her down. And held my breath while I made sure she really was asleep and wasn't going to start screaming again... then proceeded to curl up in hubby's lap and cry. It was so exhausting to have her scream like that and not be able to help her feel better. I felt like I had been run over by a bus. A bus of screaming infants, that is. And the other night, she started getting hungry on our way home from my parents' house and was overtired then too. She had just fallen into a deep sleep when I got there to pick her up and she was awakened by being put in her car seat. So hungry+interrupted sleep= screaming for 35 minutes straight in the car. By the time I made it home, my nerves were fried. I called hubby on the way and apologized in advance for biting his head off. I knew it would happen- I was beyond frustrated and wanted nothing more than to get home and make her feel better. It was an even more helpless feeling than before- at least the time prior, I was able to hold her.This time, she was in that darned car seat and out of my reach. Luckily she ate well and fell asleep.
So that has got to stop. I'm open to any and all suggestions on why she won't nap well while she's not at home. She sleeps well in my parents' pack n play at their house, if only she would stop pooping during her afternoon nap there and waking herself up with her poopy pants. She naps like a champ at home- she'll easily sleep for three hours in her crib in the afternoon here. In fact, she hasn't had a real nap in her swing in quite some time now. Woohoo!
She's developing and learning at such a rapid pace now. She's just about ready to start sitting up on her own and it's obvious that she's starting to use her core muscles now. She is also almost ready to roll from her tummy to her back... she has inadvertently rolled the other direction multiple times before. But she's now trying to intentionally roll because she still. hates. tummy time. Poor kid. She has also mastered the one-handed and two-handed grasps. She can easily grab something, pull it to her mouth, and lick/bite whatever she's holding. Including lots of mommy hair. Hah! She still loves her playmat and goes to town on the toys, going back and forth between slamming them and grabbing onto them and pulling them. Her hands are very, very grabby these days. Nothing is safe. Not even my mom's dog's ears.
Crazy baby has also turned into quite the conversationalist too... well, more like quite the giggler. She sometimes babbles and coos, but mostly giggles and laughs. She is a true goofball, just like I thought she would be. Her little eyes light up when she laughs and it melts my heart. It's also quite distracting and it's difficult to get out the door on time in the morning when you've got this amazing little creature giggling at you and flashing some sparkly little cupie-doll eyes at you. Ugh, I love her too much. She also gets quite bashful now too... if she's being held by someone and sees someone else, she'll smile, then bury her face into the person holding her, then look back at the second person. Bath time continues to be the highlight of her day- she has her pre-bath giggling fit, then she splashes, giggles, and plays with her toys until the water starts to get cold. Some nights, she'd stay in that bathtub for hours if I'd let her. My little water baby...
Emma's first Christmas is rapidly approaching. It's going to be a very sentimental Christmas this year. December 18th is also right around the corner, and hopefully I can blog that day and reflect on everything that it means to me. It's crazy to think that this time last year was the last few weeks of my life that I wasn't a mommy... my, how quickly things change. And my, what a crazy roller coaster of a ride it has been.
Welp. I tried posting pictures, but it's a no-go. Apparently I've used up all of my storage for photos on this blog, so I either have to purchase more storage, or get my tech-wizard husband to help out. But seeing how it's past my bedtime, I think I'm going to opt to try again some other time.
Time for my nightly routine- peek and smile at the baby in her crib, quietly sneak away, then get ready for bed. I love seeing how peaceful she looks while she's sleeping :)
No comments:
Post a Comment