My morning so far
2:30 a.m.: Wake up, feed the baby. Note that baby has escaped swaddle, but don’t want to wake Denny, so ignore it and hope for the best.
3:30 a.m.: Wake up; baby is making noises and thrashing around in his terrible, terrible freedom. Roll over and hope the problem fixes itself. Problem does not fix itself. Hold baby for a while. Know that it is too soon to feed, but lacking any other ideas that don’t involve waking Denny, give baby a snack.
4:30 a.m.: Wake up; baby is grumping. Again, ignore and hope baby goes back to sleep. Baby makes audible noise that indicates a diaper change is necessary (hint: this noise does not come out of baby’s mouth). Get up, change diaper. While baby is still on changing table, baby makes same noise. Change diaper again. While snapping up baby’s outfit, baby makes same noise for a third time. Laugh a little, cry a little, change diaper again. Remove baby from changing table and out of view of his favorite mobile. Baby shouts actively. Decide the 3:30 snack didn’t count and the baby might be hungry. Feed baby. Baby is still grumpy and flailing. Wake Denny, who swaddles baby and carries him around for a few minutes. Put baby in bed with us.
9:00 a.m.: Wake up to a wiggly (but happy) baby. Rejoice in the fact that four+ hours of sleep have been acquired (minus a couple of non-baby wakeups surrounding Denny’s work preparation). Feed baby. Change baby’s diaper. Grab laptop and try to do some work while baby enjoys mobile/changing table. Hear the noise AGAIN. This time, have the good sense to wait until three such noises have been heard before changing the diaper.
And here we are.
well, it is wildly clich̩ to say this Рbut sometimes it helps to be reminded Рit gets easier.
Isn’t it funny how a “shitty day” is a whole lot happier for a baby than it is for us?
Katy – that was funny – and it is really literal when it happens to a baby.
Ditto to Steve’s comment.
I love hearing about you being a mom. As senseless as it may sound, sometimes I actually miss those in the middle of the night moments. There is something about being alone with your baby in the middle of the dark quiet night… And how nice for Denny to get up and help out. Isn’t it great to wake up “well rested” with a cute little bundle next to you?
We were just discussing the beautiful days of the effective swaddle.
I don’t know, would it be considered “wrong” or “poor parenting” if we tried to swaddle a 17 month old? Perhaps just ineffective.
And she still poops over and over and over. And we’ve switched to cloth diapers because we thought she was kind of on a poop schedule. Apparently fleece makes one need to crap all the freaking time.
I’m super happy for your over four hours of sleep. Heaven! (how ridiculous is that? four puny hours of sleep? Heaven?)
We swaddle a girl in the classroom I work in to calm her for nap time. She even asks for it- 3-5 years old… I think those children who love a well tucked bed when they go to sleep are essentially being swaddled.
maybe a 3 mo. growth spurt coming on? I forget how old he is.
Oh this was fun to read last night. We both had lots of laughs. Then celebrated this morning for a 5 hour sleep between 9 and 1
Thisbe gets super angry when she loses the pacifier lately. I’m trying to teach Thisbe about the benefits of not spitting out the pacifier.