Eden's third week has been more of a challenge than the first two. Our reserves have gotten pretty low, plus Eden is moving from that newborn, "whatever you guys want to do is cool with me" vibe to having more of an opinion on what she does and what's done to her. She's still a mellow baby, but she's definitely gotten more vocal about when she needs something. Plus, she's having much more distinct sleep and waking periods, and I'll just say that they don't fall, respectively, exactly when we wish they would.
Yesterday was kind of an all-around low point for us--she (and by extension, we) only slept three hours the night before, and they were not consecutive hours, either. We gave up and got up at 6, then headed out around 8 to go apply for her birth certificate--and boy, were we feeling it. That fuzzy, achy, allover weariness and and discomfort and barely-able-to-keep-our-eyes-open stupor. We gave up again around 11:00, and wound up napping until just around 1. We felt a little better after that, but Eden was somewhat fussy all day, probably because she was tired, and couldn't make up her mind whether she wanted to eat or sleep or be held or not or what. We went out to try to run some errands in the late afternoon, but she fussed whenever we took her in or out of her carseat, but then also fussed when we'd leave her in there. So finally, we gave up (are you noticing a theme here?!) and went home with our errands half finished.
Unable to face another night like that, we dedicated ourselves to trying to figure out ways to help her settle in for the night. We gave her a bath (which she absolutely loves--you can just see her relax and soften as soon as she hits the water) and did a little baby massage with some coconut oil, and decided trying to play soft music in our bedroom throughout the night, since we've noticed she sleeps like a rock whenever it's noisy but seems to have trouble settling herself when it's quiet. We'd received a couple of lullabye CDs as gifts (thanks, Mary and Pam!) and so we cued those up and braced ourselves. Like she usually does, Eden woke up at 11:30, just as we were ready to drift off to sleep...so I fed her, Matt changed her, and to our surprise, she fell back asleep.
The next time I looked at the clock, Eden was starting to stir and it was FOUR AM. As in, we had just had, like, FOUR HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP. Matt was as euphoric about it as I was. Then, I fed her, Matt changed her, and...she went back to sleep. Again!
We've noticed that Eden tends to spit up a lot if she doesn't sit up for awhile after she eats. Sometimes it's related to burping and sometimes it seems like gravity just makes her...overflow. So we were also utilizing that technique, which seemed to help her be more comfortable and fall back asleep better. AND THEN...the next thing we knew it was EIGHT THIRTY. Meaning we had had practically seven hours of sleep, several of them consecutive.
It's the best we've done in a long time. And Matt and I felt like a million bucks as a result.
Eden seemed to feel pretty good about herself too. She was in a great mood and as a result, we decided to walk her down to the farmer's market and to the Lakeside Cafe, where we first (and last) went just about exactly a year ago. We had an awesome breakfast and Eden slept the whole time in the Baby Bjorn.
All in all, it was just an absolutely lovely day. The temperature was probably in the low 70's (cooler than that in the shade, hence Eden's hat), the baby was in a good mood, and we had gotten more sleep than we'd had in weeks.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Yesterday was kind of an all-around low point for us--she (and by extension, we) only slept three hours the night before, and they were not consecutive hours, either. We gave up and got up at 6, then headed out around 8 to go apply for her birth certificate--and boy, were we feeling it. That fuzzy, achy, allover weariness and and discomfort and barely-able-to-keep-our-eyes-open stupor. We gave up again around 11:00, and wound up napping until just around 1. We felt a little better after that, but Eden was somewhat fussy all day, probably because she was tired, and couldn't make up her mind whether she wanted to eat or sleep or be held or not or what. We went out to try to run some errands in the late afternoon, but she fussed whenever we took her in or out of her carseat, but then also fussed when we'd leave her in there. So finally, we gave up (are you noticing a theme here?!) and went home with our errands half finished.
Unable to face another night like that, we dedicated ourselves to trying to figure out ways to help her settle in for the night. We gave her a bath (which she absolutely loves--you can just see her relax and soften as soon as she hits the water) and did a little baby massage with some coconut oil, and decided trying to play soft music in our bedroom throughout the night, since we've noticed she sleeps like a rock whenever it's noisy but seems to have trouble settling herself when it's quiet. We'd received a couple of lullabye CDs as gifts (thanks, Mary and Pam!) and so we cued those up and braced ourselves. Like she usually does, Eden woke up at 11:30, just as we were ready to drift off to sleep...so I fed her, Matt changed her, and to our surprise, she fell back asleep.
The next time I looked at the clock, Eden was starting to stir and it was FOUR AM. As in, we had just had, like, FOUR HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP. Matt was as euphoric about it as I was. Then, I fed her, Matt changed her, and...she went back to sleep. Again!
We've noticed that Eden tends to spit up a lot if she doesn't sit up for awhile after she eats. Sometimes it's related to burping and sometimes it seems like gravity just makes her...overflow. So we were also utilizing that technique, which seemed to help her be more comfortable and fall back asleep better. AND THEN...the next thing we knew it was EIGHT THIRTY. Meaning we had had practically seven hours of sleep, several of them consecutive.
It's the best we've done in a long time. And Matt and I felt like a million bucks as a result.
Eden seemed to feel pretty good about herself too. She was in a great mood and as a result, we decided to walk her down to the farmer's market and to the Lakeside Cafe, where we first (and last) went just about exactly a year ago. We had an awesome breakfast and Eden slept the whole time in the Baby Bjorn.
All in all, it was just an absolutely lovely day. The temperature was probably in the low 70's (cooler than that in the shade, hence Eden's hat), the baby was in a good mood, and we had gotten more sleep than we'd had in weeks.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
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