Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
New problems
We had been pretty lucky with regards to Noelle's sleep in recent months. Ever since around her 3rd month, she's been conking out around 8pm or so and sleeping till pretty much 5:30 or 6:oo the next morning. Sure she woke up a bit sometimes at night but she would just go back to sleep. Even more of a miracle, she pretty much fell asleep by herself. (Yay, the sleep books had been right! The stuff we did/had to do during the first 3 months to get her to sleep like pacifier use/swaddling/making shushing noises didn't set up bad habits!)
However, the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 and definitely NOT going back to sleep. The problem started with what I KNEW was going to cause trouble. As I've previously mentioned, she tends to fall asleep for a nap at 6PM every day. I initially wanted to keep her up since a nap so close to her bedtime made me nervous that she wouldn't sleep through the night but up until recently, she would wake up from this "nap" after half an hour or hour or so and still go to bed fine for her actual bedtime and sleep through the night as usual. Once in a while she'd stay asleep from the 6:00pm nap and just wake up normal time in the morning. I'd chalk that up to her being extra tired...maybe she didn't nap as well during daycare that day?
Starting Tuesday night however, she was waking up earlier (she'd be wide awake by the time I woke up for my alarm at 5:30 whereas before she'd generally be either asleep still or just starting to stir). Then starting Thursday night, I would be woken up by her crying at 4:30. The last 2 nights I waited to see if she'd go back to sleep. Nope. Just steadily increasing crying. So I got her and fed and changed her. She then fell back to sleep. Grrrrr...great for you but too late for Mommy to fall back asleep before her own alarm. To try to prevent this early waking, since Thursday we have not let her sleep her 6pm nap or woken her up from it after 20 minutes or so. She went to bed last night after 8pm and she STILL woke up at 4:30 this morning. I left her alone for 10 minutes and fervently prayed she'd fall asleep again but no. She just started crying harder.
Generally, everytime she cries, I go through a panicked inventory of what can be wrong. Maybe her diaper rash is bothering her? (More on that later). Does she have a fever? Is she starving? As soon as I picked her up though, she stopped crying so I knew it was only her wanting to be picked up. So even though it broke my heart to let her cry, I put her back in the crib while I patted her back and made calming shushing sounds while keeping the room dark, in the hopes that she would learn to go back to sleep. I figured that since she fell asleep so soon again the previous mornings after I fed and changed her, she is still needing sleep.
She cried in such a heartbreaking way for 20 minutes. I actually started crying a bit cuz I felt so bad but she needs to learn to sleep until at least the sun is up! She finally quieted down when I started singing that "Good morning" song I always sang to her ever since she was a newborn. 99% of the time, it calms her down. (I know, I know- the irony of singing "Good morning" when I'm trying to get her to sleep. Myeh. She doesn't know what I'm saying). She calmed down and FELL ASLEEP after 10 minutes of soft singing. Of course, it was 5 minutes to my alarm going off by then. So here I am, writing about it. Boohoo...I need to go to bed even earlier now to deal with this.
On to the diaper rash problem:
Noelle doesn't usually get diaper rash. However, she pooped non stop all day since roughly Friday night. I guess the constant pooping is irritating cuz now her "down there" is all red. We can't figure out why she's pooping so much. I can't even say if it's diarrhea or constipation. You might ask how the hell can I not tell the difference. Well, her poop looks dry (hence constipated looking) but she's going so much (isn't that diarrhea?). Semantics aside, she's doing something unsavory in her diaper very frequently. I stopped her rice cereal for now (again) to see if that will help. I figure, myeh, she doesn't like it so much recently anyway. (Her latest thing is to do raspberries with her mouth while I feed her cereal. You can imagine how much "fun" that is). I really hope the pooping isn't cuz of something I ate. That's always maddening to me- not knowing what the heck is causing her weird poops. Is it something I ate? The new facial cleanser I'm using getting into her milk? The rice cereal? The universe out to get me? =P
Huh...it's now 1/2 an hour past when she fell asleep and she's still asleep. We're getting ready to go to Rob's mom's today so we were planning on doing the same morning routine as if it's a workday so that we can get out of the house early. Hmmmm...I think I will just let her sleep in. I'm not messing with this hard-won sleep.
However, the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 and definitely NOT going back to sleep. The problem started with what I KNEW was going to cause trouble. As I've previously mentioned, she tends to fall asleep for a nap at 6PM every day. I initially wanted to keep her up since a nap so close to her bedtime made me nervous that she wouldn't sleep through the night but up until recently, she would wake up from this "nap" after half an hour or hour or so and still go to bed fine for her actual bedtime and sleep through the night as usual. Once in a while she'd stay asleep from the 6:00pm nap and just wake up normal time in the morning. I'd chalk that up to her being extra tired...maybe she didn't nap as well during daycare that day?
Starting Tuesday night however, she was waking up earlier (she'd be wide awake by the time I woke up for my alarm at 5:30 whereas before she'd generally be either asleep still or just starting to stir). Then starting Thursday night, I would be woken up by her crying at 4:30. The last 2 nights I waited to see if she'd go back to sleep. Nope. Just steadily increasing crying. So I got her and fed and changed her. She then fell back to sleep. Grrrrr...great for you but too late for Mommy to fall back asleep before her own alarm. To try to prevent this early waking, since Thursday we have not let her sleep her 6pm nap or woken her up from it after 20 minutes or so. She went to bed last night after 8pm and she STILL woke up at 4:30 this morning. I left her alone for 10 minutes and fervently prayed she'd fall asleep again but no. She just started crying harder.
Generally, everytime she cries, I go through a panicked inventory of what can be wrong. Maybe her diaper rash is bothering her? (More on that later). Does she have a fever? Is she starving? As soon as I picked her up though, she stopped crying so I knew it was only her wanting to be picked up. So even though it broke my heart to let her cry, I put her back in the crib while I patted her back and made calming shushing sounds while keeping the room dark, in the hopes that she would learn to go back to sleep. I figured that since she fell asleep so soon again the previous mornings after I fed and changed her, she is still needing sleep.
She cried in such a heartbreaking way for 20 minutes. I actually started crying a bit cuz I felt so bad but she needs to learn to sleep until at least the sun is up! She finally quieted down when I started singing that "Good morning" song I always sang to her ever since she was a newborn. 99% of the time, it calms her down. (I know, I know- the irony of singing "Good morning" when I'm trying to get her to sleep. Myeh. She doesn't know what I'm saying). She calmed down and FELL ASLEEP after 10 minutes of soft singing. Of course, it was 5 minutes to my alarm going off by then. So here I am, writing about it. Boohoo...I need to go to bed even earlier now to deal with this.
On to the diaper rash problem:
Noelle doesn't usually get diaper rash. However, she pooped non stop all day since roughly Friday night. I guess the constant pooping is irritating cuz now her "down there" is all red. We can't figure out why she's pooping so much. I can't even say if it's diarrhea or constipation. You might ask how the hell can I not tell the difference. Well, her poop looks dry (hence constipated looking) but she's going so much (isn't that diarrhea?). Semantics aside, she's doing something unsavory in her diaper very frequently. I stopped her rice cereal for now (again) to see if that will help. I figure, myeh, she doesn't like it so much recently anyway. (Her latest thing is to do raspberries with her mouth while I feed her cereal. You can imagine how much "fun" that is). I really hope the pooping isn't cuz of something I ate. That's always maddening to me- not knowing what the heck is causing her weird poops. Is it something I ate? The new facial cleanser I'm using getting into her milk? The rice cereal? The universe out to get me? =P
Huh...it's now 1/2 an hour past when she fell asleep and she's still asleep. We're getting ready to go to Rob's mom's today so we were planning on doing the same morning routine as if it's a workday so that we can get out of the house early. Hmmmm...I think I will just let her sleep in. I'm not messing with this hard-won sleep.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Like a puppy begging for scraps
I typically pump as soon as I get home from work. I park Noelle next to me in her bouncer and pump away as I watch Oprah or the Travel Channel to decompress from work. Before, Noelle would fall asleep at this time. Nowadays, she stares at me, waiting for me to play with her/pick her up. She will just stare at me with no expression on her face, utterly still. When I reach out to touch her nose or tickle her belly/feet, she lights up, kicks out all her limbs, and smiles/laughs.
Man, do I feel like a heel that I'm not playing with her 24/7...
Man, do I feel like a heel that I'm not playing with her 24/7...
Friday, July 17, 2009
So this is why I became a parent...
Yesterday, I spent a good half hour with Noelle placed on our bed and just playing with her as she rolled back and forth between her back and front. I stared at her tiny feet that she was trying her hardest to fit all into her mouth. At her tiny fingers grasping mine while I held my face a few inches from hers. And most of all, I stared back at her beautiful eyes as she lazily blinked at me as she slowly got sleepier and sleepier with her trademark hand signal.
The paparazzi part of me that loves to document anything and everything with photos wishes I could capture these perfect moments with Noelle but I just remind myself that sometimes it's better to just enjoy the moment rather than scrambling to get my camera or camcorder.
The paparazzi part of me that loves to document anything and everything with photos wishes I could capture these perfect moments with Noelle but I just remind myself that sometimes it's better to just enjoy the moment rather than scrambling to get my camera or camcorder.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Food
So we stopped Noelle's cereal adventures as of today for the time being. For the past 2 weeks (ever since we started giving her rice cereal on a consistent, twice a day basis), she's had diarrhea off and on. I'm trying to figure out if it's the rice cereal, the fact that she takes an hour to finish a bottle of milk, or something I'm eating and thus getting into her breastmilk. I doubt the 3rd thing since I've always eaten a variety of things and nothing has changed in the past 2 weeks. I wonder about the 2nd cuz the baby books say that a bottle of breastmilk is only good for a while...something about a baby's saliva changes its composition so technically, a bottle of the stuff should not be sitting around for more than a few minutes after a feeding has started. In other words, Noelle's tendency to drink and then take a break of 20 minutes or more is a no no when drinking breastmilk from a bottle. I had switched her to barley cereal on Sunday for a day but thought it would be best to start from scratch so no cereal for now.
I confess, part of the reason for the breather is also because I'm still scrambling to figure out solids for her. My tendency to want to learn everything possible before starting it is making the idea of solids for her a big source of anxiety for me. I still haven't decided about the organic vs. non-organic either. My friend just sent me a helpful tip about diapers.com making it easy to buy organic (thanks, Va!) and I think I will start getting stuff from there. However, I already bought a whole bunch of Beechnut cereals (rice, barley, and oatmeal cereals) from the local supermarket so I hate the idea of wasting it all, too. *sigh* Who says more options makes things easier?
I confess, part of the reason for the breather is also because I'm still scrambling to figure out solids for her. My tendency to want to learn everything possible before starting it is making the idea of solids for her a big source of anxiety for me. I still haven't decided about the organic vs. non-organic either. My friend just sent me a helpful tip about diapers.com making it easy to buy organic (thanks, Va!) and I think I will start getting stuff from there. However, I already bought a whole bunch of Beechnut cereals (rice, barley, and oatmeal cereals) from the local supermarket so I hate the idea of wasting it all, too. *sigh* Who says more options makes things easier?
Monday, July 6, 2009
Living in a bubble
Ever since we brought Noelle home from the hospital, we've been much more sensitive/paranoid about what in the environment can harm or bother her. Take the wonderful air in our neighborhood for example. On my first outing with Noelle in her stroller that wasn't a pediatrician visit, I happily set forth on a bright sunny April day that was nicely warm but not too warm. As I pushed Noelle's stroller through our neighborhood, I started noticing that there were an inordinate number of smokers. *cough*. Then I noticed the heavy smell of exhaust from all the trucks passing by. *cough cough*. And the random passerbys hacking their germs everywhere and the lack of sidewalk space I can maneuver around them with. The nice neighborhood outing became my run to get away from everyone as soon as possible. For the first time that I can ever remember, I actually wished we lived in a suburb.
Add to the above some jerks who love to gather and smoke right outside our 2nd floor apartment window, we have a situation where we can never even open our windows! The cigarette smoke blows right into our living room and kitchen. It makes me think VERY angry thoughts about throwing heavy and pointed objects out the window. It's pretty damn frustrating that we can't even open the stupid window to let our little girl have some fresh air. So, we pretty much live in an AC-dependent bubble. The bubble family, that's us. *sigh*
Add to the above some jerks who love to gather and smoke right outside our 2nd floor apartment window, we have a situation where we can never even open our windows! The cigarette smoke blows right into our living room and kitchen. It makes me think VERY angry thoughts about throwing heavy and pointed objects out the window. It's pretty damn frustrating that we can't even open the stupid window to let our little girl have some fresh air. So, we pretty much live in an AC-dependent bubble. The bubble family, that's us. *sigh*
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sneak attack
As typical in the late afternoon, I was playing with Noelle yesterday while she lay on our bed. I don't know if it was due to resentment over enforced tummy time or what but the following happened:
I was cooing over her as she lay on her back. She started looking very intently into my eyes and reached out 1 hand slowly towards my face. I thought, "Awwww! She wants to touch her mama's face!" So I leaned in slowly. Out of nowhere, she quickly whips out the other hand to knock my eyeglasses off and even grunts/shouts during the effort (sorta like how martial artists shout out during a kick or punch to get extra oomph).
...
By the way, I just got new eyeglasses today. And they are plastic. The better to withstand Noelle's expressions of "love".
I was cooing over her as she lay on her back. She started looking very intently into my eyes and reached out 1 hand slowly towards my face. I thought, "Awwww! She wants to touch her mama's face!" So I leaned in slowly. Out of nowhere, she quickly whips out the other hand to knock my eyeglasses off and even grunts/shouts during the effort (sorta like how martial artists shout out during a kick or punch to get extra oomph).
...
By the way, I just got new eyeglasses today. And they are plastic. The better to withstand Noelle's expressions of "love".
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