Sunday, June 23, 2013

I miss you, sleep

6 weeks and still a fussy little pudge. He likes to be held one way only, over our shoulder. No cradling, tummy hold, not faced looking out. Nothing else will do. So far we tried him with with a bottle (so Doug can feed him if I'm away too long). No problems at all. He took it like a champ and came back to me without a second thought. We tried pacifiers to help with some of the evening upsets, but he refuses them. A mixed blessing because personally I dislike pacifiers, or at least the truely addicted babies that still use them when they are way too old and talk with them in. Nursing makes him happy every time in an instant, but I end up nursing him a lot and worrying about how much he's eating. . . however, he does spit up a bit finally and I see him lose all that hard earned dinner and then feel fine about feeding him close together. . .oh, and the african tribes I've read about nursing quick spans 40 times a day, also not overfed. Maybe he'll find his fingers soon to help, but I'm going to be extra cautious about his thumb and try to prevent the orthodontist bills in 10 years.

Our sleeping routine has overall improved things, though some nights are still thorns! We've been good and consistent for 8:00 or so. If we've done day naps just right putting him down only takes about 10-15 minutes. If we've missed the window, then we have to try and wait him out until about 10:00 or worse. . .though we haven't had a 2am night in a while, thank God. We're still starting the night in the swing and bringing him in with us after that (putting him back in the swing after the first nursing wakes him up=more work for us). I'm a bit restless because of his sounds and letting him stretch out (see above diagram "snow angels") with plenty of buffer away from the much more sound sleeping of Doug. He's still waking every 2 hours. He still refuses the crib. The whole point of which was to have his right next to me to swoop him over for nursing and put him back afterwards. It wouldn't be so crowded with a king bed, but now I'm straddling a leg or arm in the attached crib to give Rowan room in the bed, THE ONE PLACE HE'LL SLEEP. Today I broke the baby bedding rule and put a little foam padding in the crib under the bedding. He can't turn over yet, and I'll reassess when he gets close, but maybe he had my bed preference genetics. His swing is squishy, our bed is squishy and his bed is like a rock. No way I could even nap on his mattress, so we'll test the baby nest tonight.

I thought the night bath routine would be a little much, after all he's not playing in the dirt. I've been surprised what accumulates on him in a day though, now that he's spitting up and grasping things-cat fur, daddy fur, and hands damp from his mouth. . . he gets "toe-jam" between his fingers. And the dirty diaper volume is still pretty high!

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