The following is a true story of one family's struggle to survive an average Sunday.
It was a Sunday morning like any other. The sun was shining, the windows were open, Dad was watching Football and Baby was happily napping in her little crib. Mom was in the kitchen, cutting an English Muffin and thinking, "I really ought to get out the cutting board, rather than holding this muffin in my hand, but hey...what could possibly go wrong?" That was when the unthinkable happened. Mom dragged that serrated knife not only through the English Muffin, but through her left hand and, spouting blood, she called to Dad, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Dad came in, saw the wound and immediately said, "This reminds me of the time I cut my hand while slicing limes. Do you remember? ..." and launched into a story about his own past knife-related trauma, which Mom found somewhat inconsiderate. It really wasn't nice of him to steal her wounded thunder. Anyhow...Dad helped Mom wrap her hand and then, because Baby was still sleeping soundly, unaware of her Mom's impending death, strong, brave Mom walked herself out of the apartment, down the stairs and over to the hospital. Mom checked in and was told to take her bloody hand over into the waiting room, it would likely be a short multi-hour wait, per ER standard practice. And so, Mom headed for the waiting area when a horrific sound stopped her short. The sound...how to describe it...like the Jabberwocky coming out of the wood, it was a rattle and a rasp and a growl and a wheeze...it was the sound of death...it was the sound...of a roomful of people with undiagnosed, sure to be contagious, diseases. And so, Mom held back, terrified and then, after scanning the room for an escape route, finally settled on slinking over to a far corner of the room, behind a rack of vending machines to hide until her name was called. Of course, Mom's escape was quickly detected by the roomful of evil contagions who sent out one of their tiny minions, a 3 year old with what sounded like a powerful case of Whooping Cough, to come lurk by the vending machines, PRETENDING to covet the candy inside, while really just trying to propel his disease in Mom's direction. But we must move on...
Back home, Baby finally woke and Dad went to get her. On his way back into the living room, Dad was attacked by a leather chair which took his little toe, bent it backward, smacked it forward and beat it until it was purple, blue, and deformed. In attempting to get away from his attacker, Dad put Baby on the ground. In front of her was a seemingly innocuous Sippy Cup, but as we have learned, Dear Reader, on this day, normal household items were not to be trusted, and as Dad leapt around shouting and fending off the chair, Baby's sippy cup leapt up, grabbed her by the mouth and headbutted her! It shoved its hard little tip into her gum, saying "Think you can suck water from me all day every day and never get any in return, eh???" And Baby, like Mom and Dad before her, was brought to tears by her enemy.
Meanwhile, Mom had finally made it into the ER only to be told that glue would solve her hand problem, "no worries". Needless to say, said glue dissolved by that evening and Mom's hand was once again a gaping wound. Back to the ER Monday, Mom again had a 3 hour wait, cowering in the corner away from the Sickies. Once the Doctor finally came to get her, the only room that was open was a psych room. After confirming that Doctor knew Mom had not purposely cut herself and that she was not about to be strapped to the crazy table, Mom agreed to take the space. Just as Doctor was finishing taping Mom's hand (PS The tape dissolved within 12 hours and Mom's hand is now, AGAIN, open. ARGH!), chaos in the hallway and into the second psych room came a woman. She was being carried by two police officers and two hospital attendees and as they strapped her to the table, kicking and screaming, they demanded to know her name. (Mom could see all this because her door was open, her not being crazy and all. At least not in a certifiable way.)
Officer 1: M'am, What's your name?
Woman: Bastard McGee - AAAHHHHHEEEEEHHHHHAAHHHHHHHH
Officer 2: Mmhmm, what's your first name?
Woman: Bastard - RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR
Officer 1: Where you from, Ms. McGee?
Woman: .......... BASTARDVILLE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
At this point, Doctor came back in and offered to let Mom get out of there. Thank you, Doc. Although, it was the most entertainment Mom had enjoyed during her three hour visit to the ER.
The end of the story...All family members survived. Dad's toe looks like a miniature eggplant, the cut on Mom's hand looks like some kind of horror movie monster's maw, Baby shows no signs of trauma, although she does twitch a little when the Sippy Cup comes near...The moral of the story...never take for granted the essence of things. Just when you think you have something all figured out, it might go and change its nature, turning from a helpful household implement into a vicious, bloodthirsty master of destruction.
The End
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The Big 0-7.
Kayla is 7 Months Old!
Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It seems like only yesterday (well, okay, not yesterday...I mean it feels like we've had her a long time, so not really yesterday, but also, definitely not 7 MONTHS ago...) we were bringing home our tiny little Smush-Pie from the hospital. And now, here we are feeding her solids, making her giggle, watching her try to crawl...I mean, really.
At 7 Months old, one of Kayla's biggest accomplishments has to be her new mastery of the art of solid food eating and sippy cup using. She is getting better and better at maneuvering the spoon to her mouth and swallowing down the entire bite. Gone are the days when each bite took four attempts - into the mouth, drooled down the chin, spooned back up, into the mouth, drooled down the chin...I'm not going to pretend we don't still have our messy times. Yesterday, for instance, we had one sneeze mid-bite which sent food flying over Mommy's shoulder as well as underneath the nearby couch. We also, yesterday, had a realization that when Kayla gets really excited about eating, she is happy to yank that spoon toward her mouth so hard and so fast that it acts as a rather lethal slingshot, flinging food many feet farther than food has previously been flung! But, despite these messy moments, Kayla is working on her technique and is becoming pretty darned good not only at eating, but at feeding herself.
Her menu options thus far:
Rice Cereal
Winter Squash
Green Beans
Carrots
Banana
Water a la Sippy Cup
Oh, and peas. But, as I said, the first pea attempt was something of a failure, so we have to revisit that one before it really counts.
So far, most of Kayla's food has come out of a little glass jar, with the exception of the peas and banana. That said, I have just started making my own baby food and stockpiling it in the freezer for future use. So far I've made sweet peas, apples, zucchini and broccoli. (Side note: pureeing broccoli = pain in the arse. Seriously, those little trees just don't want to turn to mush. I admire their fortitude, but seriously, you are a VEGGIE and will eventually be broken down into less than mush by stomach acid, so in the battle of Broccoli vs Blender, just give up already!). On the menu in the coming weeks, I still have butternut squash, cauliflower and pears all ready to puree. Ironically, while I am purchasing, preparing and storing all these lovely foods for Kayla, I am still sorely behind on my plans to start regularly making dinner for Chris and myself. While I am peeling, chopping, steaming, pureeing and portioning out fresh meals for Kayla, I have made dinner for Chris and I only twice in the past week. Yup, twice. I'm sure there is some sort of irony in providing your child with only homemade organic foods while you yourself chow down on yet another meal from the Taco Truck, but whatever. There is simply too much to do in a day. I don't know how other women manage, but I'm finding it tough. Between taking care of a baby (which, honestly, is more than a full-time job), working full-time, trying to keep the house clean, trying to keep up some semblance of a social life...finding time to plan and cook dinner is really tough. Usually it isn't until 6pm when my stomach suddenly screams "FEED ME WOMAN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" that I even realize I haven't thought about cooking for myself. Somehow in the midst of changing baby, feeding baby a bottle, feeding baby solids, comforting baby, playing with baby...your own needs get pushed off into the "To Do" pile. This is why women really ought to get one week a month off. I think every mother needs one week a month to just catch up on her own life - to workout, to eat, to pay some bills, to see a movie, to get her hair done, to read a book...to just live. Not that taking care of baby isn't living; it is a special kind of living that is actually doubly full, but, it is also a sacrifice of sorts. You give up a lot of your freedom, a lot of your ability to be selfish, a lot of your "priorities". The strangest things suddenly take top priority: pureeing broccoli, singing "The Wheels on the Bus", monitoring poop consistency, stopping to feel the textures of fall leaves...and suddenly a whole lot of things that used to be priorities fall way way down the list. Suddenly, measuring out tablespoons of rice cereal becomes so much more important than that dentist's appointment that you really should have made two months ago and you realize "Holy crap...I'm a MOM." That's right. M.O.M. You have taken on a new persona that actually cares about someone else, some tiny little someone, SO MUCH MORE than it cares about. And all of a sudden, steaming broccoli and pureeing pears seems like the most natural evening activity; far more natural than going out to dinner or out for drinks. Not that you shouldn't puree with a glass of wine in hand, mind you. After all, even M.O.M.s are human.
Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It seems like only yesterday (well, okay, not yesterday...I mean it feels like we've had her a long time, so not really yesterday, but also, definitely not 7 MONTHS ago...) we were bringing home our tiny little Smush-Pie from the hospital. And now, here we are feeding her solids, making her giggle, watching her try to crawl...I mean, really.
At 7 Months old, one of Kayla's biggest accomplishments has to be her new mastery of the art of solid food eating and sippy cup using. She is getting better and better at maneuvering the spoon to her mouth and swallowing down the entire bite. Gone are the days when each bite took four attempts - into the mouth, drooled down the chin, spooned back up, into the mouth, drooled down the chin...I'm not going to pretend we don't still have our messy times. Yesterday, for instance, we had one sneeze mid-bite which sent food flying over Mommy's shoulder as well as underneath the nearby couch. We also, yesterday, had a realization that when Kayla gets really excited about eating, she is happy to yank that spoon toward her mouth so hard and so fast that it acts as a rather lethal slingshot, flinging food many feet farther than food has previously been flung! But, despite these messy moments, Kayla is working on her technique and is becoming pretty darned good not only at eating, but at feeding herself.
Her menu options thus far:
Rice Cereal
Winter Squash
Green Beans
Carrots
Banana
Water a la Sippy Cup
Oh, and peas. But, as I said, the first pea attempt was something of a failure, so we have to revisit that one before it really counts.
So far, most of Kayla's food has come out of a little glass jar, with the exception of the peas and banana. That said, I have just started making my own baby food and stockpiling it in the freezer for future use. So far I've made sweet peas, apples, zucchini and broccoli. (Side note: pureeing broccoli = pain in the arse. Seriously, those little trees just don't want to turn to mush. I admire their fortitude, but seriously, you are a VEGGIE and will eventually be broken down into less than mush by stomach acid, so in the battle of Broccoli vs Blender, just give up already!). On the menu in the coming weeks, I still have butternut squash, cauliflower and pears all ready to puree. Ironically, while I am purchasing, preparing and storing all these lovely foods for Kayla, I am still sorely behind on my plans to start regularly making dinner for Chris and myself. While I am peeling, chopping, steaming, pureeing and portioning out fresh meals for Kayla, I have made dinner for Chris and I only twice in the past week. Yup, twice. I'm sure there is some sort of irony in providing your child with only homemade organic foods while you yourself chow down on yet another meal from the Taco Truck, but whatever. There is simply too much to do in a day. I don't know how other women manage, but I'm finding it tough. Between taking care of a baby (which, honestly, is more than a full-time job), working full-time, trying to keep the house clean, trying to keep up some semblance of a social life...finding time to plan and cook dinner is really tough. Usually it isn't until 6pm when my stomach suddenly screams "FEED ME WOMAN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" that I even realize I haven't thought about cooking for myself. Somehow in the midst of changing baby, feeding baby a bottle, feeding baby solids, comforting baby, playing with baby...your own needs get pushed off into the "To Do" pile. This is why women really ought to get one week a month off. I think every mother needs one week a month to just catch up on her own life - to workout, to eat, to pay some bills, to see a movie, to get her hair done, to read a book...to just live. Not that taking care of baby isn't living; it is a special kind of living that is actually doubly full, but, it is also a sacrifice of sorts. You give up a lot of your freedom, a lot of your ability to be selfish, a lot of your "priorities". The strangest things suddenly take top priority: pureeing broccoli, singing "The Wheels on the Bus", monitoring poop consistency, stopping to feel the textures of fall leaves...and suddenly a whole lot of things that used to be priorities fall way way down the list. Suddenly, measuring out tablespoons of rice cereal becomes so much more important than that dentist's appointment that you really should have made two months ago and you realize "Holy crap...I'm a MOM." That's right. M.O.M. You have taken on a new persona that actually cares about someone else, some tiny little someone, SO MUCH MORE than it cares about. And all of a sudden, steaming broccoli and pureeing pears seems like the most natural evening activity; far more natural than going out to dinner or out for drinks. Not that you shouldn't puree with a glass of wine in hand, mind you. After all, even M.O.M.s are human.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Ahem
Okay, okay, so I am WAY behind in my posting. Mea culpa. Trying to find time to keep up on blog entries while also taking care of a 6-month old, working full-time and traveling pretty much every weekend is proving a little challenging, but excuses or no excuses, I have been remiss in keeping you all up-to-date on our most recent happenings and I will try to remedy that...now.
First of all, sleep training. I know I left you with a little bit of a cliff-hanger. The long and the short of it is that we had a horrible night, a great night, a horrible night, an okay night and then 5 straight nights of 730pm to 630am sleep. Ahhhhhhhh. Those 11 hours of solid, angel-baby sleep were AMAZING. I say were because after those 5 fabulous nights, we are now suddenly starting to get little mini-interruptions again. Last night, for instance, K woke up at 1000pm just SCREAMING. You honestly would think she must be having bad dreams or something the way she just wakes up in a near panic. I got her calmed down and back to sleep pretty quickly, but only after picking her up to get the panicky-edge to ease. Then she slept really well until about 530am this morning when she was suddenly up and ready to go. I don't know what it is that causes these weird blips...I suppose it's the fact that she's human. Lord knows adults don't sleep for the exact same 11 hour period every night, but, we also don't eat exactly every four hours, take naps exactly every three...I don't know. It's hard to know what is working and what's not. It's also hard because something is always changing with babies and the first thing to be impacted by those changes is their sleep. Kayla has a fourth tooth coming through on top; she is now eating two meals of solids a day: rice cereal, veggies and all; she has a seriously runny nose that probably stems from the teething, but might be a cold based on her mommy's stuffy head...so who knows which, if any, of these things is throwing off her sleep again. Most people say, "Oh, but she slept from 1030pm to 530am? That is seven straight hours! That is great!" But when you know that she is capable of doing a straight 11, seven is a little harder to swallow. I think the most important thing is remembering to just go with it, to remember that she is 7 months old, to remember that this too shall pass. And to remember that the weekend is coming soon and maybe Daddy can take one of the early mornings...
Anywho, so that's the story with sleep training: pretty much a success and, luckily, a quick success, with the occasional post-training malfunction. What else?
Halloween. Kayla's First Halloween. Most of you know that I love Halloween. LOVE. So, getting to introduce the holiday to Kayla this year, even if "introducing" it really just consisted of sticking some antlers on her head and letting her chew on a pumpkin, was so much fun. We were lucky enough to have our friends Suzanne and Tim come down with their little one Davin (6 weeks younger than Kayla), so it was an exciting first for everyone. Not to mention, of course, that Kayla has 20 little 5-10 month friends here in Hoboken who were also celebrating their first Halloweens. Some of them more happily than others...apparently those big furry suits...not popular with the baby crowd. Some pics from the weekend-o-Halloween-fun:
What else...
We are hard at work on solids. Kayla has been a really good sport about trying everything. I think our first foray into solids (post rice cereal) might have been a mistake. Based on the doctor's recommendation, we tried giving her peas as a first food. Enter a major gagging session followed by two days of refusing solids. So, we ditched his advice and went about our own strategy of food introduction. So far, Kayla has had winter squash (HUGE fan), green beans, and carrots. We're taking it slowly, but she is getting better and better every day. We have the occasional morning where she just doesn't feel like having solids for breakfast, but she's always willing to chow down in the evening and she is getting more and more tolerant of texture (i.e. her rice cereal is getting thicker and thicker).
Peas...
#FAIL
Squash...
Great Success!
Other than that, we are basically waiting anxiously for Smush to start crawling. She is a moving MACHINE these days! She rolls and scootches and slithers and wiggles and manages to get halfway across the room before you've so much as blinked. She's also pushing way up on her hands and knees and not just rocking, but starting to move...first one knee, then the other...her arms haven't quite started cooperating yet, but man...if crawling isn't imminent at this point...I'll be shocked. She's just recently figured out that she can push up from her belly into a seated position. She is just getting more and more clever everyday. It's unbelievable. I'm afraid to take my eyes off her for more than a second for fear that I'll miss the start of her next big thing. Crazy to think that she will be seven months old on Monday. Our baby is getting so big!
First of all, sleep training. I know I left you with a little bit of a cliff-hanger. The long and the short of it is that we had a horrible night, a great night, a horrible night, an okay night and then 5 straight nights of 730pm to 630am sleep. Ahhhhhhhh. Those 11 hours of solid, angel-baby sleep were AMAZING. I say were because after those 5 fabulous nights, we are now suddenly starting to get little mini-interruptions again. Last night, for instance, K woke up at 1000pm just SCREAMING. You honestly would think she must be having bad dreams or something the way she just wakes up in a near panic. I got her calmed down and back to sleep pretty quickly, but only after picking her up to get the panicky-edge to ease. Then she slept really well until about 530am this morning when she was suddenly up and ready to go. I don't know what it is that causes these weird blips...I suppose it's the fact that she's human. Lord knows adults don't sleep for the exact same 11 hour period every night, but, we also don't eat exactly every four hours, take naps exactly every three...I don't know. It's hard to know what is working and what's not. It's also hard because something is always changing with babies and the first thing to be impacted by those changes is their sleep. Kayla has a fourth tooth coming through on top; she is now eating two meals of solids a day: rice cereal, veggies and all; she has a seriously runny nose that probably stems from the teething, but might be a cold based on her mommy's stuffy head...so who knows which, if any, of these things is throwing off her sleep again. Most people say, "Oh, but she slept from 1030pm to 530am? That is seven straight hours! That is great!" But when you know that she is capable of doing a straight 11, seven is a little harder to swallow. I think the most important thing is remembering to just go with it, to remember that she is 7 months old, to remember that this too shall pass. And to remember that the weekend is coming soon and maybe Daddy can take one of the early mornings...
Anywho, so that's the story with sleep training: pretty much a success and, luckily, a quick success, with the occasional post-training malfunction. What else?
Halloween. Kayla's First Halloween. Most of you know that I love Halloween. LOVE. So, getting to introduce the holiday to Kayla this year, even if "introducing" it really just consisted of sticking some antlers on her head and letting her chew on a pumpkin, was so much fun. We were lucky enough to have our friends Suzanne and Tim come down with their little one Davin (6 weeks younger than Kayla), so it was an exciting first for everyone. Not to mention, of course, that Kayla has 20 little 5-10 month friends here in Hoboken who were also celebrating their first Halloweens. Some of them more happily than others...apparently those big furry suits...not popular with the baby crowd. Some pics from the weekend-o-Halloween-fun:
What else...
We are hard at work on solids. Kayla has been a really good sport about trying everything. I think our first foray into solids (post rice cereal) might have been a mistake. Based on the doctor's recommendation, we tried giving her peas as a first food. Enter a major gagging session followed by two days of refusing solids. So, we ditched his advice and went about our own strategy of food introduction. So far, Kayla has had winter squash (HUGE fan), green beans, and carrots. We're taking it slowly, but she is getting better and better every day. We have the occasional morning where she just doesn't feel like having solids for breakfast, but she's always willing to chow down in the evening and she is getting more and more tolerant of texture (i.e. her rice cereal is getting thicker and thicker).
Peas...
#FAIL
Squash...
Great Success!
Other than that, we are basically waiting anxiously for Smush to start crawling. She is a moving MACHINE these days! She rolls and scootches and slithers and wiggles and manages to get halfway across the room before you've so much as blinked. She's also pushing way up on her hands and knees and not just rocking, but starting to move...first one knee, then the other...her arms haven't quite started cooperating yet, but man...if crawling isn't imminent at this point...I'll be shocked. She's just recently figured out that she can push up from her belly into a seated position. She is just getting more and more clever everyday. It's unbelievable. I'm afraid to take my eyes off her for more than a second for fear that I'll miss the start of her next big thing. Crazy to think that she will be seven months old on Monday. Our baby is getting so big!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
For Shame
Clearly you people did not cross your fingers because last night was TERRIBLE! After going down super easily at 730pm, Kayla woke back up at 1am and cried for roughly two hours. We soothed, we stroked, we patted, we prayed...and yet, it took a full two hours for her to finally fall back asleep. And then at 645am, she was back up and unhappy. We tried more soothing and cajoling, but she was not having any of it and so finally, at 720am, I got her up and we started our day.
This sleep training stuff is horrendous. It is miserable sitting there listening to her wail. All you want to do is just to go in and cuddle her up, but the experts swear we would be hindering rather than helping. She needs to relearn how to self-soothe now that she has quit sucking her thumb and the sooner she learns that skill, the better, both for her and for us. Breathe...
This sleep training stuff is horrendous. It is miserable sitting there listening to her wail. All you want to do is just to go in and cuddle her up, but the experts swear we would be hindering rather than helping. She needs to relearn how to self-soothe now that she has quit sucking her thumb and the sooner she learns that skill, the better, both for her and for us. Breathe...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Night Two
Night Two of Sleep Training:
Last night, Kayla actually went down with very little trouble. She seemed exhausted a little earlier than expected, so instead of starting our nighttime routine at 720, like we'd planned, we caved and started more around 645. By 730, Kayla was down for the count after only one brief crying episode and one brief comforting session from us. Last night it was my turn for battle, so I went to bed at 1000pm, prepared for a long long night. Instead, the night was amazingly painless. Kayla woke up multiple times, but only for brief periods of two to five minutes and each time she actually put herself back to sleep with no coaching from me. Only once, the whole night, did I have to get up and pat her and, again, that only lasted a minute before she sort of sighed and drifted back off. Now, she was up more than usual, probably once every few hours or so, but because her waking periods were so brief, there was no crying it out, no real sleep training...all just went so smoothly.
It scares me.
Why? Why would it be so easy only one night in? It seems too good to be true.
Today, Kayla woke up super happy and was right on schedule for everything - feeding, playtime...she was even in a good enough mood to agree to down some green beans (a new taste for her!) after completely rejecting any possibility of solid foods yesterday. And then it was naptime. She was tuckered out about 20mins earlier than anticipated, so I tried to extend her by reading her a book. Turns out, it is REALLY hard to read to a child who is screaming and squirming, so...we abandonned that idea and she went down for her nap. It took going in a few times to finally get her settled, but by then it was her real naptime, so it seemed like everything was going to work out perfectly.
Then the jackhammer started. That's right - jackhammer. Naturally, the building next door, which has been under construction for months, would finally be ready to have its foundation jackhammered just two days into our sleep training. Sure, why not? And so, over an hour of on-again, off-again sleep insanity ensued. Kayla would finally pass out, the jackhammer would start, Kayla would wake screaming, I would shush her, wait, shush her, wait, she would finally fall asleep, JACKHAMMMMMMMEEEERRRRRR. And so, this process went on and on until finally I was ready to give up, get Kayla up and head for Baby Yoga which, of course, is when Kayla finally passed out for good. There is absolutely no question that babies have some kind of mandatory activity radar. When you have somewhere you absolutely have to be, that is the one time that they will either take a longer nap, actually be ready for bed on time, or will decide actually they want to finish that whole bowl of cereal from which they normally only take a few bites. Oh, or that will be when they decide to take a monsterous poop that comes up and out the back of the diaper, covering them, their clothes and, oftentimes, an unprepared mama, just as you're on your way out the door. Babies are tricksy. They knows.
So now it is 2pm and Kayla is down for her second nap of the day. Thankfully, the jackhammering appears to have stopped momentarily and I'm just hoping they decide to extend their break through naptime. It only took 5 minutes to get Kayla down for this afternoon's nap, so I think she's exhausted. Just gotta hope that she manages to get in two hours or so now so that tonight is equally pleasant.
Keep those fingers crossed. It appears it may be working!
Last night, Kayla actually went down with very little trouble. She seemed exhausted a little earlier than expected, so instead of starting our nighttime routine at 720, like we'd planned, we caved and started more around 645. By 730, Kayla was down for the count after only one brief crying episode and one brief comforting session from us. Last night it was my turn for battle, so I went to bed at 1000pm, prepared for a long long night. Instead, the night was amazingly painless. Kayla woke up multiple times, but only for brief periods of two to five minutes and each time she actually put herself back to sleep with no coaching from me. Only once, the whole night, did I have to get up and pat her and, again, that only lasted a minute before she sort of sighed and drifted back off. Now, she was up more than usual, probably once every few hours or so, but because her waking periods were so brief, there was no crying it out, no real sleep training...all just went so smoothly.
It scares me.
Why? Why would it be so easy only one night in? It seems too good to be true.
Today, Kayla woke up super happy and was right on schedule for everything - feeding, playtime...she was even in a good enough mood to agree to down some green beans (a new taste for her!) after completely rejecting any possibility of solid foods yesterday. And then it was naptime. She was tuckered out about 20mins earlier than anticipated, so I tried to extend her by reading her a book. Turns out, it is REALLY hard to read to a child who is screaming and squirming, so...we abandonned that idea and she went down for her nap. It took going in a few times to finally get her settled, but by then it was her real naptime, so it seemed like everything was going to work out perfectly.
Then the jackhammer started. That's right - jackhammer. Naturally, the building next door, which has been under construction for months, would finally be ready to have its foundation jackhammered just two days into our sleep training. Sure, why not? And so, over an hour of on-again, off-again sleep insanity ensued. Kayla would finally pass out, the jackhammer would start, Kayla would wake screaming, I would shush her, wait, shush her, wait, she would finally fall asleep, JACKHAMMMMMMMEEEERRRRRR. And so, this process went on and on until finally I was ready to give up, get Kayla up and head for Baby Yoga which, of course, is when Kayla finally passed out for good. There is absolutely no question that babies have some kind of mandatory activity radar. When you have somewhere you absolutely have to be, that is the one time that they will either take a longer nap, actually be ready for bed on time, or will decide actually they want to finish that whole bowl of cereal from which they normally only take a few bites. Oh, or that will be when they decide to take a monsterous poop that comes up and out the back of the diaper, covering them, their clothes and, oftentimes, an unprepared mama, just as you're on your way out the door. Babies are tricksy. They knows.
So now it is 2pm and Kayla is down for her second nap of the day. Thankfully, the jackhammering appears to have stopped momentarily and I'm just hoping they decide to extend their break through naptime. It only took 5 minutes to get Kayla down for this afternoon's nap, so I think she's exhausted. Just gotta hope that she manages to get in two hours or so now so that tonight is equally pleasant.
Keep those fingers crossed. It appears it may be working!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
A Pause Before the Festivities
So, my original intention was that my next blog post should be a happy-go-lucky recounting of this past weekend's Halloween festivities (which were, in fact, a blast), but before I do that, I first have to explain what's been happening since Halloween because, to be honest, it is sort of all consuming.
Starting about five nights ago, Kayla randomly started waking up in the middle of the night. The first night it was 3am, then Friday it was 2am, Saturday 4am, Sunday 1am...and she would scream. Just scream. She would wake up fussing and if you didn't go and get her right away, screaming ensued. (Poor Suzanne, Tim and Davin, who were staying with us this weekend and had to suffer through it!) And so, Chris and I finally decided last night that it was time to lay down the law. I think we were ill-prepared in some ways, because Kayla has always been such a good sleeper. Since the very beginning, she went down so easily that we never really faced a struggle or had to learn how to deal with one. Additionally, we've been so disciplined about making her sleep in her crib, putting her down while she's awake, etc., that I just never expected to have to start sleep training at almost 7 months. Of course, that's babies...always changing it up when you least expect it.
So, last night was our first official night of sleep training. After having gotten no sleep for four nights and having dealt with a fussy Kayla all day each day, I was a wreck by last night and so Chris offered to take first shift while I tried to get some sleep. It should be noted that trying to sleep through the baby screaming when you're in a two bedroom apartment...pretty much impossible. I had in earplugs and, at one point, had piled two pillows over my head, and I could STILL hear her. Alas.
Night One: Kayla woke at 3am and started to fuss. Within five minutes she was full-on screaming and so, Chris went over and started trying to comfort her. From there, they started a cycle: comfort, leave, scream, repeat, which went on for an hour and a half. Chris was going in every 10 minutes, shushing her, whispering comforting words to her, patting her...and she would start to calm down and then "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" It was horrible. I came out around 330am and, God bless my husband, he just looked at me, smiled and said "Well, this is fun." Kayla screamed on and off until about 430am when she FINALLY passed out. She then slept until 700am. At 700am I heard her start to squawk, but I didn't go in to get her until 800am. Part of the sleep training theory is that they need to physically be in their beds for 12 hours and that means that if they wake up an hour early, you are supposed to let them talk and squawk and play until that hour is up. And so I did.
Today has been a trial. The poor nanny came today and so is taking the brunt of Kayla's less than stellar mood. We put Kayla down for her nap at 1000am, as normal. She went to sleep easily, but was up within 30 minutes. Considering her morning nap usually lasts more like two hours, this was not bueno. She has then proceeded to fuss and be unhappy pretty much non-stop. I'm really hoping she goes down for a decent nap this afternoon or who knows what we'll be dealing with tonight!
On a side note...my worries about the babysitter running off with Kayla, probably for naught now. Lord knows I wouldn't steal her right now. The screaming is a fabulous child napper deterrent. See? There is always a silver lining.
Anyhow, so tonight is my night on Sleep Training Duty. I am 100% dreading it, but keep trying to remind myself that the books promise it should kick in within a week (I'm trying to ignore all the friends who have told me how much longer it took it to work for them). Please keep your fingers crossed for all three of us! I fear we're in for a bumpy ride.
Starting about five nights ago, Kayla randomly started waking up in the middle of the night. The first night it was 3am, then Friday it was 2am, Saturday 4am, Sunday 1am...and she would scream. Just scream. She would wake up fussing and if you didn't go and get her right away, screaming ensued. (Poor Suzanne, Tim and Davin, who were staying with us this weekend and had to suffer through it!) And so, Chris and I finally decided last night that it was time to lay down the law. I think we were ill-prepared in some ways, because Kayla has always been such a good sleeper. Since the very beginning, she went down so easily that we never really faced a struggle or had to learn how to deal with one. Additionally, we've been so disciplined about making her sleep in her crib, putting her down while she's awake, etc., that I just never expected to have to start sleep training at almost 7 months. Of course, that's babies...always changing it up when you least expect it.
So, last night was our first official night of sleep training. After having gotten no sleep for four nights and having dealt with a fussy Kayla all day each day, I was a wreck by last night and so Chris offered to take first shift while I tried to get some sleep. It should be noted that trying to sleep through the baby screaming when you're in a two bedroom apartment...pretty much impossible. I had in earplugs and, at one point, had piled two pillows over my head, and I could STILL hear her. Alas.
Night One: Kayla woke at 3am and started to fuss. Within five minutes she was full-on screaming and so, Chris went over and started trying to comfort her. From there, they started a cycle: comfort, leave, scream, repeat, which went on for an hour and a half. Chris was going in every 10 minutes, shushing her, whispering comforting words to her, patting her...and she would start to calm down and then "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" It was horrible. I came out around 330am and, God bless my husband, he just looked at me, smiled and said "Well, this is fun." Kayla screamed on and off until about 430am when she FINALLY passed out. She then slept until 700am. At 700am I heard her start to squawk, but I didn't go in to get her until 800am. Part of the sleep training theory is that they need to physically be in their beds for 12 hours and that means that if they wake up an hour early, you are supposed to let them talk and squawk and play until that hour is up. And so I did.
Today has been a trial. The poor nanny came today and so is taking the brunt of Kayla's less than stellar mood. We put Kayla down for her nap at 1000am, as normal. She went to sleep easily, but was up within 30 minutes. Considering her morning nap usually lasts more like two hours, this was not bueno. She has then proceeded to fuss and be unhappy pretty much non-stop. I'm really hoping she goes down for a decent nap this afternoon or who knows what we'll be dealing with tonight!
On a side note...my worries about the babysitter running off with Kayla, probably for naught now. Lord knows I wouldn't steal her right now. The screaming is a fabulous child napper deterrent. See? There is always a silver lining.
Anyhow, so tonight is my night on Sleep Training Duty. I am 100% dreading it, but keep trying to remind myself that the books promise it should kick in within a week (I'm trying to ignore all the friends who have told me how much longer it took it to work for them). Please keep your fingers crossed for all three of us! I fear we're in for a bumpy ride.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)