HIGH MAINTENANCE.
but mom! look at my cute smile!
I suppose I should take that back, you are also insanely adorable. But girlfriend, I believe you are trying to slowly drive me mad. More on that in a bit.
Thea is still growing like crazy, but thank goodness she didn't pack on an additional four pounds this month! She weighed in at 12lb 13oz (91st%) and measured 23.3 inches long (89th%). Her head measured 38cm, which puts her in the 28th percentile. Both Ryann and Elsie quickly climbed the growth charts, but not THIS quickly. I'm impressed. Also, Miss High Maintenance gets fed a lot to quiet the screaming, so yeah. Not all that surprised. She is wearing a size one diaper and 0-3 month clothing.
Sleep and fussiness continue to be our biggest issues. Miss Thea is rather difficult to get to fall asleep. Holding her doesn't do it, rocking? Nope. Car seat? Not always. She screams if I try to just lay her down and walk away, she doesn't fall asleep in the swing. Generally she has to be swaddled and walked around and bounced a ridiculous amount before she'll cave. Nursing her is the fastest way to get her down, but truthfully that doesn't work all the time either. And currently I seem to be the only one who can make her fall asleep. It is exhausting. Not to mention there is not guarantee she'll actually stay asleep if you try to put her down. And I can never guess whether I'm going to get 30 minutes or 3 hours when she naps.
As far as the night time sleep is concerned, I can't say it is all bad, but again, ZERO consistency. One night she'll sleep for a glorious 6.5 hours, eat, and sleep for another 3.5-4 hours. Heck yes. The next night she'll wake up every 3.5 hours. The night after that she'll sleep for 5 hours and then won't go back to sleep for two hours. And sometimes in the wee hours of the morning she can't stay asleep for more than 45 minutes at a time. It can be maddening for all of us! I can't blame Thea for all of this, I say she gives me zero consistency, but honestly it isn't like she has a lot of consistency either. Every day looks a little bit different, and because she needs to nap so often still, it is hard to coordinate everything. Then she winds up overtired and screaming. And eventually all of us are crying because Ryann and Elsie are fighting and Thea isn't sleeping and I don't have a damn clue how to fix it all.
I could go on and on, about it, but I won't. This too shall pass. She goes to bed between 8:30-9:30pm. And she is up for the day between 7-8:30am. It all just depends! She is still sleeping swaddled in the rock 'n play in our room. I can't fathom switching her to the crib because she spits up so much, but I think Chris is 100% ready to reclaim our room, and I can't say that I wouldn't mind her being in her own space. I just don't want to walk to her room every 45 minutes between 3-7am.
Thea is still rather particular about the car seat. Slowly but surely she is able to tolerate just being in there a little bit more. But if she is tired, my word. I wind up carrying the car seat through stores because she won't fall asleep or stay asleep if it is clicked in to the stroller. If we're going to take her on a walk I have to put her in the car seat 5-10 minutes before we want to leave and carry it around or rock it so that she is at least drowsy, if not asleep, before we head out, or no dice. Also no luck with a pacifier. We've tried at least seven different brands I think. She still acts like we're shoving poison down her throat. Crazy baby.
Thankfully for little Miss Thea, she has the cutest damn smile and the sweetest baby coos to keep me from completely losing my mind. When she smiles at me I can't help but smile back. And I just love when she 'talks' to me. I feel like she has so much to say! Probably repremanding me on my crappy parenting skills, but whatevs. She gives lots of smiles to her Grammy, and seems to like it when we sing to her.
Thea is incredibly strong. Sometimes annoyingly so. At my six week check-up the OB (not my OB because naturally she got called in to a delivery while I was waiting in the room with no pants on, yay) came in and asked if he could hold Thea. I said sure, but she isn't much fun to hold. He sort of laughed and picked her up. 10 seconds later, "You're right, she isn't much fun to hold." She is constantly stiff and arching her back trying to look around. Or squirming so much you think you're going to drop her. She never just slumps over and cuddles in. Today at her two month appointment the doctor held her up to see if she'd bear weight on her legs. She was able to support her only around her trunk, Thea was able to hold her head upright and support most of her own weight on her legs. And the nurse (who looked like she was 16, kinda stressed me out) commented that she was very difficult to hold down while she tried to give her FIVE shots. Poor girl. I've never heard her cry that hard ever. For the rest of the day she simply could not be awake. If she was she was wailing.
Overall this month has been rough. The smiles are getting us through. But I can see tidbits of her progressing towards being more of a baby, more interactive, and I know it is going to be so fun. Thea loves to do tummy time on the boppy while watching Ryann and Elsie play and dance in front of her, I can just tell she is going to really enjoy sitting and watching them often.
I may be doing a lot of complaining right now, but Thea girl I love you so much. Don't you ever forget it!
3 comments:
She sounds like my second, who was also a heavy spitter. That reflux with the screaming and the constantly needing to be bounced just so IS maddening! Good job keeping your chin up, I know it's not easy!
I just keep telling myself..... this too shall pass. It really is crazy making though, and you're home all day with the other 2 as well! (or at least Elsie for most days) Ugh. Anyway, I feel ya, as you already know. We'll make it!
That sounds just like my second (my first and third were easy babies) and I soooo feel for you. He had horrific reflux and virtually never slept. Nights were also horrible. Hang in there! My son is so awesome now, but holy cow, that baby stage was almost the death of me!
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