I know I am still only at the beginning of the baby story, but I thought I would write about the present. We are doing pretty well! So far it looks like Amelia is not going to be colicky, which is my great fear. I feel I can only deal with so much, and a baby who cries from 5-8 PM (like sweet Heather used to do, and as I'm told I did too) seems like it's over my limit.
Right now Amelia is sleeping in a sort of baby massage chair Meg gave us. It is playing soothing baby music. We took her for a long walk in the Ergo carrier, which seems to make her sleep, and then she stayed asleep when we got home. I am waiting for her to wake up and nurse.
She is a champion nurser, despite being a formula junkie for the first 24 hours or so of her life (more on that later). She gained a whole pound in a week and a day, the time between her two doctor's appointments. The doctor said her "robust appetite" is a sign of her health. Amelia likes to eat a lot. Based on what I'd read and heard from friends about the first weeks with a newborn, I tried to mentally prepare for doing nothing much but nurse for her first month. That's pretty much the way things are going. The hardest thing for me is the lack of nighttime sleeping. I am a sleeper. I tend to fall apart without enough sleep. Amelia has had some nights where she slept 3 hours at a time, and others where she was up every hour and a half or less. It's also hard to know when to take her to bed. Going to bed early doesn't mean we will get more sleep. I have napped some, but I am a bad napper.
I am hanging in there for now, but there are signs the lack of sleep is getting to me. Yesterday, we took Amelia to the doctor, and as I was signing her in, I forgot her name. I wrote the letter "A" and went blank. I sort of stared at the sign-in sheet for a few seconds, waiting for her name to come to me. I thought, "It's not Annabelle." Finally I remembered. We should probably stop calling her "the baby." Maybe that would help.
All right, there is a significant amount of grunting and wiggling going on in the baby chair...
3 comments:
Glad to hear things are going well. I wasn't a great sleeper with a newborn either, so I feel for you. Love hearing more abou8t how you're both doing!
I forgot Faith's name too, although I was standing in our kitchen trying to think of it, not standing at the sign in sheet. And we, too, couldn't tell when to "put her to bed", which ran in the 1 hour segments etc like you describe. There were some nights that I was up with her and to "handle it" I put on a movie. I remember the credits coming on and me just hitting "play" again, as the night was continuing. Yikes. It will get better!! Thanks for blogging-- I have been checking it each day :)
I am impossible without sleep- I remember about 3 am one morning with D. Christopher begged to go to Walmart and buy formula b/c I was so sleepy that I was crying the whole time she nursed! I think that was my trademark- the more sleep deprived I was, the more I cried over odd things! Looking back though, it's amazing how fast that stage passed- I hope that's a little bit encouraging. She is beautiful!
Post a Comment