We've been home from the hospital for a week now, making Sadie officially a nine-day-old.
It really does feel like a lifetime ago that we were kid-less; it seems like she's always been with us. At the same time, she is a completely foreign being whose language we speak only minimally.
In many ways, she's a wonderfully easy baby. She loves to be held, tolerates having her diaper changed, and when she does cry, swaddling her up in a blanket and bouncing her gently in our arms quiets her instantly. Feeding times are a pleasure, occasional projectile spit-ups aside. Put her in her bouncy seat (with all-new Vibrating Motion!) and she's usually asleep in minutes, and will stay there for hours.
This is during the day.
Nighttime is a completely different experience, and is our punishment for the reward of having such a cheerful daytime newborn. She's up and down sometimes hourly; soothing her back to sleep can be an exhausting experience. When we get a 3 hour stretch of sleep out of her in the nighttime hours, it's cause for celebration.
We figured out pretty early that co-sleeping in the bedroom with us was nothing more than a way to ensure that neither of us got any sleep. Because she's still a couple of weeks away from being able to bottle-feed, I'm her only source of food and that means when she wakes up hungry, I'm the one who feeds her. We decided I should move into the nursery, and so that's what I've done.
What that means is that when she gets up, I get up, and when she whimpers or makes noise, I get up then, too, because I now exist in a constant state of mild anxiety wherein I'm always waiting for her to awaken and start fussing. It sounds like a rawer deal for me than it is, because she has her 5-6am meal, I wake up Scott and hand her off to him and then go into our bedroom for another couple hours of sleep.
I've gotten a lot better at getting her back to sleep when she does wake up. The routine has become: check the diaper for poop, have a feeding, then bounce on the yoga ball and sing softly until her eyes close. It works, but it's also an exhausting routine to cycle through three or more times a night, considering it can take as long as an hour from when she wakes up to when she finally gets back to sleep.
Everyone says this will pass and she will eventually start sleeping in longer stretches, so I'm focusing on that.
Next entry: the joys of bodily functions, and how bad it makes you feel the first time you get shampoo in your baby's eyes.
[this is good] Okay, I so feel your pain. At some time when you are so out of it you can't be intelligent because of the lack of sleep you will want to wear a sign that says "I have a college education!" I know I still say that at times! I am gonna give you unsolicited advice. When she hits the six week mark...move out! Get a moniter and go back to bed. Emily and Samantha both slept in our room with me taking them to the nursery to nurse and rock etc in the middle of the night and then coming back to bed. We, J and I, decided both children were too noisy in the night when they were okay so as soon as they were six weeks old they got evicted from our room! Needless to say when Emily sleeps longer than six hours now I panic and wonder how I left her and what if she fell out of the crib (impossible!) etc. But sleep quality is so much better. See what did I say unsolicited advice on your blog!
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