Little Eva Mae is just three weeks old tomorrow, and what a whirlwind it has been! Although we were mentally and physically prepared as much as possible, nothing of course can truly prepare you. And of course all the books make it sound so easy!
We read about the "Five S's", but hey, guess what? This kid will not be swaddled! Her bottom half maybe on a good day. A few times while she was sleeping, she not only got out of her swaddle, but on at least one occasion she somehow got her arm out of her pajama sleeve and up through the neck! I was thinking I should have named her Houdini! She's a fiesty one. So much for swaddling. Here is a picture of her swaddled up - enjoy it now as it only lasted about two minutes.
Shushing? Forget it. I thuoght it was actually working once until she belted out into a scream about a minute into it. I've tried it a few times and she just gets annoyed with me.
Swinging? It worked once so far. But usually she just stays awake and looks to the side, in a very "I'm bored and would rather be held" kind of way.
Sucking? It works, but with a serious drawback. Since we were told that infants have a natural sucking reflex and obviously can't and don't want to eat continually, we gave in to the pacifier on day two, as she appeared to be crying for no reason. Aimee and I had pretty much previously decided we didn't want to give her a pacifier at all if we could help it, because A) they get addicted to it, and B) it can slow their speech and social growth since it's always plugging up their mouth. But then in practice, after giving in, we discovered the best reason of all not to give her the pacifier - we give it to her, she falls asleep, within 10 minutes it falls out of her mouth and she wakes up freaking out until you give it back to her. Two nights of that and forget it, no more pacifier. The last few weeks she's made it most days without it at all, and some days
for just a few minutes. It's really more of a convenient tool to get them to be quiet for a few moments, if you are in public or on the phone.
I will say that the only one of the five S's that works is the side/stomach positioning. But little Eva doesn't like to burp, so she was getting TONS of gas buildup in her little tummy. We noticed that laying her on her stomach across our legs helped her feel better. Of course nowadays you aren't supposed to let them sleep that way, so we try to have her sleep on her side. So okay, ONE of the five S's works.
Listen to me, like I'm an expert parent already! Hah! I'm sure I still have a lot to learn. But the truth is that no one will know our baby better than us, so we are slowly figuring her out through trial and error. So far the major challenges have been:
1) The gassy buildup due to difficulty burping;
2) Being over-tired because she doesn't like to take naps at all;
3) Some breasfeeding challenges.
But thankfully 3 weeks later we've made some progress on all fronts. Aimee read that if you sit up while breasfeeding, that can help with the baby's gas. Also, she was using this special nipple protector thing since she was getting sore, but we realized that was letting air in too. Poor little Eva's tummy was a perfect 360 degree circle for a few days! We still dont'have a great burping technique (we've literally tried 10 different ways) but the buildup has been less, and she tends to burp on her own mostly. And when she is gassy, laying her on her stomach stops her crying almost instantly.
And as of yesterday we think we figured out her napping/sleeping problems. So far she has barely taken any naps during the day, and at night she reluctantly falls asleep around 1 AM. Since she's still so young of course, she wakes up again around 4 for a feeding, and again around 7. A few lucky nights we've gotten 4-5 hours sleep in a row, and thankfully we've gotten by! However yesterday we noticed that if she is tired and fighting it, but we lay down with her in the bed (instead of putting her in the bassinett) she falls asleep fast and hard. So the short answer is, now we know how to get her to sleep pretty easily, but the tricky thing is they say you shouldn't sleep with the baby in the bed, because of course you can roll over on them, they can suffocate on the sheets, etc. So we're expirimenting with getting her to fall asleep that way, then moving her after she's out cold. So we're still working on that, since she seems to wake up the moment we place her in her bassinet.
Last night was the first night we let her sleep in bed (on my chest) and it was a great bonding time. Also, for a little while I put her next to me and just watched her, and I really started to see Eva as a little person with her own personality, not just a fussy baby who didn't want to sleep alone. She was respostioning herself, snuggling up to me, moving her arms around, etc. Qutie honestly, it looks like she just wants to sleep with mom and dad in a big people bed! We'll see how it all works out.
One thing Aimee and I really want to do is use cloth diapers, for several reasons:
1) It saves money in the log run,
2) makes a lot less landfill garbage, and
3) It's better for the baby's skin and they have less diaper rash.
Did you know that diapers have a bunch of nasty chemicals in them? Anyway, my first experience with cloth diapers wasn't too promising. The baby pooped and peed, and it went through her diaper, got her outfit dirty, and the sheet of the playpen, and the mat beneath it! That was too much stuff to wash for one little accident. But we came to realize that Eva is just too tiny for the cloth diapers to fit her snugly right now. Aimee still uses them during the day when she has some control over the environment, but at night we are using disposables for now.
Oddly, they say babies mess their diapers about 10 times a day, but we're finding with the cloth diapers, its more like 20 times a day. Now of course I don't think the cloth diapers are causing her to go to the bathroom more, but I DO think that since regular diapers soak up so much stuff, parents who use them don't realize their baby needs a change until they have already went 2-3 times.
Thanks for listening. I know most of you probably just come to the blog to see cute little pictures, but I was overdue for some updates! It's the weekend and I finally have had a chance to breathe. Stay tuned!
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