Pregnancy and Motherhood Archive

Sophia lay across my waist on the Boppy pillow nursing while I sat upright in our recliner with my laptop on a tiny portable table. I was typing out a post about her new nap and nighttime sleep habits. Halfway through Sophia was finished nursing. I kept her on the pillow and she smiled, and cooed. Then I heard the wet peculating coffee sound from her diaper. I made note, but otherwise ignored it. I new there was more to come and I wanted to make sure she was done lest I get splattered while changing her. That hasn’t happened yet. *searches for wood to knock on* She has let out a couple little farts while I’ve changed her before, but nothing actually hit me. *finds that wood to knock on*

She let out her second set of “productive” farts and suddenly I felt something warm. OHMYGOD NO! EEEeeewwww! I pushed the table away. I kept Sophia in place by holding the Boppy pillow and keeping it all pressed against me till I made it upstairs to the nursery where I could lay it all on a changing pad. The Boppy pillow got out of it completely unscathed but the front of my pants and the shirt that tucked in them were both soaked. I needed to change clothes without a doubt and probably a shower.

I took Sophia’s onesie off without getting poop on her face, but with her arms and legs flailing and her latest development of an obsessive compulsive foot fetish - the child and I needed baths. This was the very same day she discovered her feet and thus my new annoyance with diaper changes. Poop was on her hands, arms, legs, and my hands. It was a mess under that onesie and diaper. Of course, she had to do this when we were sort of in a time crunch. I needed to get started on the bread pudding I was taking up to Bellingham for the football game later that day (poor Packers lost against the Patriots).

The thing that really had me scratching my head aside from the fact that she was wearing the “I (heart) mommy” onesie that Kurt bought for her on Christmas at the time was that when I took my shower Kurt popped her around the shower curtain and I gave her a kiss. I never ever thought I would kiss someone minutes after they literally just shit on me. Just so we’re clear - no, I’m not into that.

Check out the story behind this old friend.

I bought this along with two other toys for Sophia on Friday. This one requires batteries and the other two don’t. She likes this one best. *grumble* And from day one she was strong enough to pull on the red triangle at the bottom to make the two morning sounds - a rooster crowing and an alarm clock. I don’t think she cares as much for the sound as she likes to see the cheeks on the smiley face glow when a sound is playing.

I also bought a set of rattles that where different shapes and colors with different textured fabric covering each. One side of each of them is a clear plastic so you can see what is making the rattle sound in the inside. Each one also has a different plastic teething thing attached to it - she doesn’t care for that part at all. The only things I’ve seen her put in her mouth are clothing and blankets that she has already drooled or spit up on. I don’t know if it’s the smell, taste or the texture but despite the amount of preteething drool she just isn’t into the teething stuff yet.

This morning I woke up gushing with extra milk.  I must have fed Sophia from the wrong side during her 3am snack.  I had a hard time going back to sleep after she ate then I woke up around 5 and couldn’t go back to sleep.  By six I was in pain but I didn’t pump cause I figured she would wake up soon.  The later it got the more I thought, “oh, she’ll be up any minute now”.  She finally woke up at a quarter to seven and I was quite ready to feed her.  Unfortunately she was more interested in looking at the night light beside the bed.  Ok fine.  I covered her face and turned on the room light then turned off the night light.  Now pay attention kid!  Nope.  The little shit just wanted to play with her newest toy - her damn feet!

Sophia discovered her feet yesterday and has made diaper changes more difficult. She already insists that she keep her knees tucked into her armpits when we change her but now she also has to hang onto her feet. This morning Kurt stayed home sick and Sophia would not cooperate in keeping quiet so daddy could sleep. I tried everything but nothing calmed the little fuss budget until I took her socks off and laid her in her bassinet so she could play with her toes. She actually used her feet and legs to spin herself around so that she could play with the toys dangling above her and she was able to push the button on one of them that played music for her.

Before we changed the rules on Sophia and started sending her to bed at eight at night, I would nurse her when she became hungry at around nine. Then I sit there holding and rocking her until she was in a deep enough sleep that her body was limp and I could tip toe to her crib gently setting her down usually at ten but sometimes at eleven/midnight/or the always lovely two in the morning. Now I can reliably go upstairs do our half-hour routine and set her in her crib half awake without doing specially choreographed dancing around eggshells type of maneuvers. Sometimes she falls asleep right away and other times we’ll hear, “ah-heh ah-heh” for a few minutes before she’s out.

From birth she’s been really good about sleeping at night only waking me once a night for a feeding and then going back to sleep for another four hours. Up until last night going back to sleep meant she got to sleep next to mom.  Dad would enter in the morning to see us side by side sleeping in the same position. I never intended to start “co-sleeping” but when we first brought her home I didn’t want to be away from her at all. I was also afraid I wouldn’t wake up to her cries until she’d been at it for hours if I slept in another room. After a month and Kurt went back to work I still slept on the spare bed in her room so that Kurt wouldn’t be disturbed in the middle of the night, but when I wake up on a Saturday morning such as this Saturday to her turning her head back and forth so hard that she actually scoots herself up to me and then continues pounding her head into my spine till I wake up, it’s time for me to sleep in my own room. Last night I thought I’d try it. I even put her back in her crib half awake after her 2:30 feeding and all I heard was, “ah-heh ah-heh” and she was out! Yay!

This afternoon Kurt put her down in her crib for a nap. She started to wail, but it only lasted a minute and she was asleep. WOO!! Now if only I could have her let me sleep past 6:30 in the mornings.

Last night as I was changing Sophia’s diaper getting her ready for bed Kurt stood on the side saying, “nAkkid, nnnAkiid” and Sophia was smiling and giggling at every utterance. Apparently, she likes the word naked.

For about the first month of her life Sophia was ok with baths, and then she changed her mind about them. A couple of weeks ago I gave her a bath that she was tolerant of and Thursday she decided she loved it. Sophia discovered splashing and she flailed her arms and legs about smiling and giggling.

Monday last week at Sophia’s doctor appointment he checked her ears and throat and all is well.  Friday and Saturday were actually her worse two days although she was a little grumpy on Sunday.  By Monday, all she had left of her cold was a runny nose.  The doctor said that we could always give her some baby Tylenol because she can get the same achy pains adults do with their colds. 

While we were in the office, we told the nurse about Sophia’s napping habits or lack thereof.  There have been times the child has stayed up for 12 to 14 hours straight, or only had a couple ten-minute naps during the day.  She might fall asleep when nursing but as soon as I set her down she’s wide-awake, and I’m not about to hold her ALL DAY LONG.  Car rides usually work but we didn’t invest in one of those detachable infant carriers so she wakes up when the ride is over and we actually have to go in the store or back in the house. 

I use a front pack when I go grocery shopping that she’ll sometimes fall asleep then too, but getting back into the car wakes her up again.  I know those detachable infant car seat carriers make things easier when at a restaurant and just going in and out of the car to run errand all over town without disturbing the baby, but then you have to carry the weight of the seat and the child and that gets HEAVY!  I’d rather carry a 15-pound baby against my body than a 15-pound baby with a 10-pound seat by hand.  Those seats can be expensive and aren’t used for very long anyway.  Sophia will be able to sit up on her own in about three months (probably less) so she’ll be able to sit in restaurant highchairs and shopping carts soon besides, her lack of napping is more of a problem on the days that I stay home. – I haven’t figured that one out either.

I would wear the front pack around the house but about the only chore I can do with it on is vacuum the house and we don’t have much carpet.  I’ve tried hauling laundry up and down the stairs with her in the front pack and I do ok, but I don’t think bending down to put clothes into the drier is good for my back, and folding laundry would require much longer arms.  The same goes for doing dishes and loading the dishwasher with her attached to my front.

So the doctor gave us a printout that was meant to help parents get their baby to bed at night, but he said we might be able to get some tips from it for napping.  Because that day Sophia had not slept at all during the day we took the opportunity to use the suggested techniques to switch her usual bedtime from 10pm to 8pm.  This special technique was basically – put the kid to bed and let her cry herself to sleep.  Oh GOD was it hard!

It said to develop a bedtime routine that starts about thirty minutes before bedtime and that the baby needs to associate the crib with falling sleep instead of falling asleep in my arms.  She also needs to learn to calm herself to sleep without me holding her, swaying, driving, using “white noise”, standing on my head, or juggling axes lest she later learns to wake up in the middle of the night without needing to be fed and require me to juggle the axes some more.

The routine I started was to change her diaper, put her in nightclothes, close the curtains, put some of her baby things away for the night, turn on the nightlight, and offer to nurse her even if she just ate thirty minutes ago.   I nursed her until she showed her usual sign of not being hungry which is to attach and detach A LOT and look up and smile at me.  The looking up and smiling at me is what made the next step so incredible difficult because she was being all cute and sweet and here I am about to do something that I know she’ll hate.  I put her in her crib still awake like the magic doctor sheet said to do.  I kissed her and told her goodnight.  She smiled and cooed.  Oh why do you have to make it so difficult?  I made the “goodnight” brief just like the magic doctor paper said and I left the room.  She quietly entertained herself for a few minutes and then the crying, screaming and crocodile tears began. According to our directions, we were to check on the baby every five to fifteen minutes and talk softly to her without any harshness in our voices.  Visits should be brief and boring.  We could give her kisses, hold her hands, etc.  But under no circumstances were we to pick her up (well ok maybe if there's a fire we can pick her up).  We were to only be in the room for a minute and you know that Kurt was very precise following each guideline to the letter.  I pointed out that our directions gave no time limit for the whole process.  I mean at what point each night do you just give in and start over the next night?  Because she eats about every two hours during the day we decided if she isn’t asleep in that time I could pick her up to feed and change her.  Every ten minutes we took turns to go check on her.  On my turns, Kurt came with me because he didn’t trust that I wouldn’t pick her up and only stay a minute.  The torture ended after an hour and a half when Sophia threw in the towel. 

I didn’t follow this technique with naps because to try it four times a day would just drive me insane and I think it would just be too much.  Despite me not changing anything during the day, Tuesday was a breeze.  She took three good naps (each lasting about an hour) and fell asleep within thirty minutes that night.  Wednesday she took three ok naps (each only lasting about 30 minutes) and took an hour and a half to fall asleep that night.  Thursday was a no nap day and it took an hour and a half to get her to sleep that night.  I blame Kurt for falling for the old, “I need a drink of water” routine.  On one of his turns to check on Sophia, he checked to see if she was hungry by letting her use his pinky as a pacifier.  He didn’t realize that’s all she was doing was using it to calm herself.  I tried to nurse her and knew right away that she wasn’t actually hungry but I sat with her anyway just as much for her comfort as my own.  Friday and Saturday night we only had to check on her once on each night.  Sunday night she actually prompted me to check the time when she started to fall asleep while nursing – it was 7:30!  Not only was she right on cue but that night she slept right through the night for NINE AND A HALF HOURS STRAIGHT!!  Monday night and tonight she fell right to sleep on her own.  Each night the screaming a wailing became more fussing than calling out to save her life which was nice, and with exception to Saturday she did pretty well with naps too.