Sleep Baby Sleep...Trying Something New

Late night our put down wake up 1.5 hours later dance occurred again...Baby E woke from her 7pm bedtime put down at 8:30pm (in the middle of mommy's Gossip Girl) and didn't go back to bed till about 10pm. She woke up as happy as can be like it was any other nap. I honestly think the is used to having 4 naps a day and recently because she has woken up later, she has only had 3 before bedtime, shes just trying to stick with what she knows. I mean she has no concept of time, she doesn't know that after she goes to bed mommy can catch up on her guilty pleasures like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries and Gray's Anatomy...don't judge.

So I'm gonna try something new today. Since Baby E had been going to bed later she has also been waking up later. This morning she woke up at 6am (after going to bed at 10pm!), not enough sleep I know but I kept her up at 6am with the hopes that she will go back to her previous schedule. I know it doesn't always work that way with babies but I have to give it a go and see what happens. I mean isn't that what first time moms do? They throw shit at the wall and see what sticks?!

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November 29, 2011

Update: 2 words- Epic FAIL!

To say that none of the shit I have thrown to the wall stuck would be an understatement. So Baby E continues to wake up at 6-7am every morning. But she still refuses to sleep till 9:30/10pm (last night it was 1am) I have to get her to drop that last nap at 5/6pm but how? I've tried to wake her up early from the nap but she somehow finds a way to get back into a pattern where she wakes up at 8pm and is up till 10pm...I guess I just have to keep trying.

Isn't it sad when your baby's bedtime is later then yours?

Nightly Sleep Dance

Wow, really? has it been THAT long since I've written an entry? It seems so. But believe me there has been no shortage of material. In the past month Baby E has learned to do a lot. The most notable is she has learned to use her voice. We are not talking coos and hums. We are talking about screams and yelling. To be honest it was a really cute in the beginning but became less cute as it started to effect her sleep. The week before, DH and I tried something new, we would rock Baby E till she was drowsy and then placed her in her crib. After a minute or 2 of whimpering she would turn around, pop her thumb in her mouth and off to sleep she went.(we have since been reluctant of sleep training since our experience last month). It was great! naps went from 45 min to 1 1/2 hours, she slept well through the night (still 1 or 2 feedings) and she seems to be a happy, well rested little baby. Then the screaming and yelling happened. It seemed that Baby E was much more interested in listening to her own voice then to sleep (yay, how fun for me). so I'd rock her and bounce her; she would let out a happy yell and scream; I'd continue to rock her and bounce her... eventually this resulted in me rocking and bouncing for 30-45 min (insane I know).

At the end of it all Baby E wouldn't sleep, not for long anyway. She would wake up crying if I put her down and DH and I found ourselves back where we were about a month ago. With a baby who wanted to be held all the time, despite her ability to self soothe herself to sleep on her own. It got to a point where if she did sleep it was only for 1-2 hours, then she would wake up wanting to play and stay up for 3 hours! WTF? all the books I read say babies at her age are only supposed to stay up for 1-2 hours...yeah, right! Tell me that at 1am when I've been bouncing my baby for 45 min! I think one of the most frustrating things for a new mom is when you know your baby is exhausted, you are doing everything you can to help them sleep and they just can't (or wont). But frustration aside, I have to remember that this little person is new and has yet to developed the skills needed to manage day to day, it's just a phase and it will eventually pass (I can type this now because its not 1am and I'm not bouncing and rocking her).

Anyway, with this new discovery, DH and I have had little sleep...but at least my little girl has discovered her voice, and isn't afraid to use it; which may be bad for us when she reaches 4 years old. No quite little girl for us!

Not Without Sacrifice.

3 weeks in, 3 boxes of new born size diapers, 1 pack of size one diapers, 3 packs of wet wipes, numerous late night feedings, 1 emotional break-down. Yes, I said it, I broke. Holding a crying, fussy baby I found myself starting to cry. Maybe it was hormones, maybe it was the lack of sleep who knows. After composing myself with a nice little 2 hour nap and DH banishing me out of the house for an hour after he got home from work, I was right as rain again. All day Baby E was crying and wouldn't sleep when I put her down. I'd pick her up, she'd stop. I'd set her down, she'd cry...and so it went on all day, from 7am to 5 pm. I couldn't very well just leave her and let her cry in her crib, so there I was rocking a baby on and off for close to 10 hours, with small breaks to eat, pee and get in a 20 minute cat nap. I guess at that point I thought to myself "What was I doing wrong?"

24 hours later I realized that we as new first time mothers just have to step back sometimes and give in. After talking to other moms I see now that there are a number of factors that lead Baby down this road of excerising her lungs and super clingyness. Not that I was doing anything wrong, just had to listen to the her and not try to control the situation. Baby E is currently going through a growth spurt, which means her eating and sleeping patterens are all over the place, leaving her extra fussy. Also, since she is still only3 weeks old I have to keep in mind Baby E has no sense of time and or habit. Baby E is still in what they call they "4th trimester" where she is still used to the womb and all it's coushy comforts. My job is to make sure she feels that, even if it means making sacrafices. I will admit I have yet to fully come to grips with this adjustment. Maybe because my baby expiriance has not been with a newborn but with babies who were 3 months plus. With them, they already had sleep pattens and less fussiness.

I know there are books out there that tell mom's what to exspect int he first few weeks after birth. People tell you about it but if you are like me you take it with a grain of salt and think you can handle it. But honestly, nothing can prepare you for whats in store unless you actually live through it. Only then will you know that you have to really adjust rather then try to control the situation. But after taking some time away from the situation, I realize that no matter how fussy, how tired, how stressful things may be, once you look at your baby and he/she smiles at you (be it an intentional smile or just muscle movement) that momentary feeling of pure joy makes it all worth it and you would be willing to give up all the sleep in the world to make sure your baby is happy. I mean come on, if the train wrecks on MTV's Teen Mom can raise a healthy child, there is no reason in the world why I can't.

Invasion on the body snatchers

Early into my pregnancy I noticed some changes in my body. You had the standard larger and tender breasts, nausea, bad skin, greasy hair and extreme fatigue. But I also noticed strange little things like a bionic sense of smell (really, I could smell what DH had for lunch when I kissed him as I walked through our front door), and increase in saliva and nasal congestion (so attractive). It turned out my body was no longer my own, I was merely a vessel for breeding, a fact I would learn would prove more true as my pregnancy progressed.

All of the sudden my body was no longer my own. In an instant I had gone from being a active independent woman to a human incubator. I would eat things I wouldn't normally eat, the food I did eat would take longer to pass through since the embryo was getting all it could from everything I was eating (we'll get to that later) , scents that I never minded before suddenly made me want to throw up and my bed time had gone from 11:30Pm on a weeknight to 8:00pm. Now, like many men I'm sure that DH didn't mind that his new wife's boobs had grown but alas, no fun to be had since they would hurt like a MotherF'er and I'm sure my early morning hacking and nose blowing was just the attractive wake up call he had been dreaming of. For me the tipping point where I realized my body was no longer my own was when my regular pants wouldn't fit anymore. I had to graduate to wearing fat pants (aka, yoga pants) most of the time. I was getting too big for my regular jeans, and too small to start with maternity pants. All I could do to accommodate my growing ass, amongst other things, was wear dresses and stretchy pants, but since it was getting colder here in Ottawa yoga pants were my stretchy pants of choice. Due to my limited fashion selection I didn't go out much. Heading out for a casual dinner with friends in yoga pants was still somewhat acceptable but going to a nice place with DH for a chef tasting in stretchy pants; not cool, which was fine with me....more time to sleep. Plus, I would soon learn there was a whole list of foods I should avoid.

Don't get me wrong, I was more then willing to give up my body for 9 months if it meant I would be rewarded with a healthy , happy baby at the end. Even during the misery of throwing up, the pain of new bigger boobs and no longer fitting into my fat pants because my ass was getting bigger and bigger all I could do for weeks was look at myself in the mirror before a getting into the shower and rub my belly and smile. We were having a baby. I was now human incubator and I was OK with it.

Sleep is for the weak...and the pregnant

One of the first signs of pregnancy is fatigue. I'm talking I don't want to do anything, going to sleep for 12 hours, too tired to wash my hair, fatigue. I had waited a few days before I told Dear Husband that he was gonna be a daddy. I wanted to think of a cute way to tell him, I mean the first time only happens once right? Yeah, that never happened.

Now, you may think I'm just a lazy ass and that I'm exaggeration, but I'm not. I was feeling tired all the time. I would fall asleep at around 8pm every night and wake up at 7:30 the next morning; I really didn't have any energy to do anything, if I didn't have to work I would have slept all day only waking up to eat and go to the bathroom. DH started to get worried. He thought I was sad or something. "No Dear, I'm just tired" I would say. I can honestly say I felt drained, like this soon to be baby was a mack truck and it just knocked me on my ass . It was like the little bugger inside of me was taking all my super powers away. I would start to take naps on weekends and lay in bed right after I got home from work. Sleep was all the developing embryo needed. No food, no water just sleep. Sleep so that mommy's powers could be taken away as she dozed in her bed.

DH started to get worried since at this point he still had no clue. He thought it was because I didn't have a wedding to plan anymore, like I was falling into a post-wedding depression. "Are you OK? do you need a new hobby or a new project?" he would ask. After a few days of this I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Honey" I said "I'm not depressed, I'm pregnant" the look on his face was priceless. Bet ya he didn't see that one coming.