Eviction Effective T-1 Month

A post I started but haven't finished:

Today's topic: Transferring Bean to her crib in her room from the bassinet sleep-and-play in our room.

Pre-pregnancy I always felt that it was important to train a child to sleep in her crib, in her own room. Baby's are taught how to sleep, it's our job as parents to teach them, hence, own bed own room. That lasted all about two seconds when I brought my teeny tiny Bean home. She was fast asleep when we got home so Hubby suggested we put her in her crib. She was so tiny and the crib was so large, I didn't feel comfortable leaving her in there all alone. After having spent the last nine months being right there with me, it felt cruel to just throw her into this huge space to be all alone. So we set up the pack-and-play complete with napper in our room. Much better :) She sleeps right next to me which is convenient both for mom to peek over and assure that Bean is still breathing as well as getting up to nurse every two-three hours. After a couple of weeks when Bean started eating more, she developed the dreaded baby reflux. They say every baby has some form of reflux, that's why they spit up. But I wasn't expecting Bean to have that problem while sleeping. You see, I put her to bed on her back (as recommended by all pediatricians) to help prevent SIDS (which I am deathly afraid of). However, she would spit up in her sleep then caugh and gag - heightening my nervousness and breaking up my sleep even more. She would do this and I would frantically jump out of bed. ("What's wrong?! - Hubby) I'd swiftly pick Bean up from her bed, lay her against my chest so she's upright and pat her back. Of course most nights she'd just snuggle in ("Mmm, my mommy") and fall back to sleep. But this was terrifying, I was so worried she would spit up one night and it would block her airway and we would be a part of another SIDS statistic. I finally called her pediatrician who wasn't all that concerned but suggested that we give her 1 tablespoon of rice cereal to help thicken her stomach contents. Hubby & I weren't too keen on that idea, we've been told not to start solids until 6 months to prevent the development of an allergy. We tried for a couple of days but we just weren't comfortable. That and I was terrible about pumping my milk... Have you read that post?? Geesh... Anyway, the issue cleared around 8 weeks and Hubby suggested we start training Bean to sleep in her room (aka Training mommy to trust the monitors & crib.) The first night, she went to bed at about 8pm and laid in her bed like my sweet little Bean burrito... But tonight, I couldn't lay in bed next to her while I read or watched tv... I had to leave her in that huge dark room, in the huge crib, all alone. Needless to say, the monitor was turned all the way up (Yay, static!), I was a nervous wreck *trying* to watch tv with hubby in the living room, and I got up every 5-10 minutes to check on her...

Regression of a 4 month old mind

This morning I have finally gotten a little time to myself, so I think, nap? clean? blog?? I haven't blogged in FOREVER! So, I have the diapers in the wash (yup, we went cloth! all with the help and suggestions of L & HB.) and that's "cleaning" and well, Bean has been napping for a half an hour already so there's no chance of me getting a really decent nap in, so lets catch up...

Bean has been an awesome kid. What more could I ask for? She is happy, healthy, and sleeps through the night at only two months old... Wait. Hold that thought. She DID sleep through the night until she was about a week and a half from hitting 4 months old. I guess there's this theory of the 4 month wakeful period. I don't know that there's much science behind it but it seems to happen to a lot of babies around this time. They go from wonderful, perfect tiny humans who get themselves and mom into a wonderful, predictable schedule then BANG! out of nowhere they start waking up several times a night again and have a hard time napping. I guess the thought behind it is that they are learning and maturing so much that their brains essentially have a hard time shutting down. Much like many adults who worry about that big meeting in the morning or in my case, the safety of one's husband. So, here we go, back again to zombie mommy... I'm wandering around the house with my eyelids puffy, my contacts hardly ever put in, spit up on my shirt (because I'm too damn tired to wrangle with laundry), and oh yeah, did I mention, my resentment toward Hubby for getting to sleep 8, 9, 10+ hours EVERY night, uninterrupted. ...He still might get that smack to the belly at 2 am... But, how can I stay cranky when those blue-hazel-gray-maybe-they'll-be-brown, eyes look up, those chubby cheeks I just can't stop smacking on raise to make aforementioned eyes squint as tiny as her daddy's, and that gummy grin appears just for me. Simply because I looked over that crib rail and said "Good morning, Bean." I mean, let's be real here, all those nasty, cranky, crabby thoughts I had when I woke up at 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, and 5:30 (and not to mention its about 7:00 AM now) disappear. And then, I know that another day, I will make it on little sleep, the body is an amazing thing, (The "mom" body is the most amazing of all. Well, minus that jigglying poochy thing that's developed. Oh, yeah, and those... "love handles"... there's nothing to *love* about them...) and Bean and I will enjoy every last minute of it. (Until she has that screaming match with what I assume is teething pain.)