* I feel like I have a newborn again (well, I never really technically had a newborn, but it's hard to not think that when she weighed FIVE pounds) because Clara is waking up in the night. The problem is ever since she has been rolling over like crazy, she has started rolling over in her crib while she sleeps. And she's totally freaked out by waking up on her tummy. I know exactly what it is when I hear her because it's a different cry than normal. It's like she's scared. So one of us (usually Ryan, since it's a huge production for a starving, nauseous, peeing-like-crazy pregnant woman to get up in the night, or so I've found) gets up and either turns her over - which never works because she's now awake and isn't a pacifier baby - or brings her into our bed. Usually it's the latter. So each morning we try to just let her fall back asleep in bed with us, thinking this time she won't scream for a bottle, and every morning we (Ryan) end up getting her a bottle. But we usually fall asleep while giving it to her and wake up just as she is happily finishing it. She then sleeps with us for a couple hours (if I can even get back to sleep). This morning it was especially cute because she was lying between us, awake, tapping Ryan in the face, then me, then Ryan, then me. It was like she came up with a sort of game. I love her.
* Anyways, if anyone has any advice about this, please let me know. So far the only thing I can think of is to try to have her learn during the day that it's not the end of the world to end up on her tummy and that she can keep rolling. And she usually does. It's just something about it happening at night that freaks her out (and crying it out doesn't work because this is the girl went for two hours once [wow, that sounds terrible that I even know she can last two hours. What happened was I fell asleep during the crying...]).
* I am 15 weeks and some odd days pregnant this week. I'm doing pretty well, although I'm not yet experiencing that second trimester bliss that some women describe. I had a couple weeks of it, but then it was right back to nausea, exhaustion, and - my new favorite symptom - sadness. Well, I'm not sad all the time (and, if I am, it's usually for no reason) but I definitely don't have the capacity to deal with things (like nausea) that I had in the first trimester. Does that make sense? It's obviously my hormones, which I have little control over. It's no big deal. I'm just riding it out, seeing what comes next. And I'm telling myself that feeling crappy is due to my progesterone rising, which has been my experience in the past. I'll hopefully find out on Tuesday that my theory is correct.
* I'm getting a sore throat. I was hoping that I could go the full nine months without actually getting ill and having to go without medication, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. Hopefully tylenol will do the trick.
* I cannot wait to find out this baby's gender, which will happen in about four and a half weeks. I go back and forth on what I think it will be, but I tend to think girl for a few reasons. First, because I'm one of three girls and my sister is pregnant with a girl right now. Second, because GIMH did the string test on me this weekend and the result was girl (and because that's basically scientific, right?). And third, I think it's a girl because we have a boy's name all picked out and can't decide for the life of me on a girl's name, therefore I just KNOW it's a girl.
* Ryan's cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, taking care of Clara and waiting on me hand and foot. I am very blessed.
Alright, time for bed. I wish I had more exciting things to say but that's it. I actually do have some reflections I want to post, but I usually find I can't concentrate on writing them if I haven't updated the mundane stuff in a while. So this was my attempt at clearing my head to make way for more thoughtful posting. If I ever get around to it!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Quick update
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Aww, you sound so normal. Not sure about the rolling over thing, unless you can use a wedge or something... I know she's probably past that stage by now.
ReplyDeleteIf symptoms are any indication, I would guess "girl" too. The hormones when I was expecting my girl were so "blue", so sad. I wonder why. Hang on for a few more weeks. I think it will get better!! Nineteen weeks has been my magic number. :)
Maybe some tummy time during the day would help the nighttime thing. TT strengthens the upper body for babies and it might help her be able to maneuver herself more easily and independently.
ReplyDeletep.s. I'm still nausea too. And exhausted.
Give her plenty of tummy time so she realizes it isn't the end of the world if she ends up like that. My oldest daughter hated to be on her tummy until she figured out how to flip back over.
ReplyDeleteOK- my friend might disown me for sharing this story, but...I must.
ReplyDeleteWhen my friend's first baby went through that phrase, she'd HAD it after a week. So...she took several towels and blankets, rolled them up tightly and placed them in the crib so that she had to SQUEEZE her son between them. She figured THAT would keep him from rolling over.
And it did. For a couple nights- then...the cries began again.
So...she used velcro. That's right. She put velcro on his pjs and velcrow on the bed and VELCROED HIM TO THE BED!!! The thought of this brings tears to my eyes as I laugh and laugh and laugh about it!!!
And THAT worked. For a few nights. Then he learned to turn over INSIDE his pjs!!!! The pjs were still velcroed to the bed, but he was turned over inside of them. That's TALENT I tell you!!
She tried one mroe time- with smaller pjs and mroe velcro. :)
Then she just taught him to roll back over. :)
I told her one day she's going to get him a pair of velcro shoes and the sound of it opening/closing is going to send him into therapy!! But he's six now and doing just fine. :)
Try putting her to sleep on her tummy, for naps or for bedtime.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice! Oddly enough, she slept through the night last night for the first time in a couple weeks! Although I didn't do anything different.
ReplyDeleteI actually give her hours of tummy time lately.. it's her new favorite thing. Although she's not on her tummy most of the time since she can roll over. And when she is on her tummy, she rolls to her back or puts her butt in the air and tries to crawl, at which point she also rolls to her back. It's just for some reason it wakes her up at night. Although I can't say she loves being on her tummy even during the day. She's never been comfortable with it.
Lauren, that's hysterical! Glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem :)
Girl, RUN, don't walk, to Amazon and buy "The Happiest Baby on the Block."
ReplyDeleteThen buy a Miracle Blanket.
I have recently discovered THBOTB and it is changing our lives. His insight and tips are priceless!
Anyway, swaddling helps, and the Miracle Blanket comes highly recommended by a mom of 8 (and hundreds of others on Amazon) so I ordered that, but for now I'm amazed at how immediately one of my sloppy blankie swaddles works. I just blogged on THBOTB.
It's utterly amazing. I'll bet you anything it works for you.
Oh, and PS. I'm one of SIX girls, and I have 13 nieces and only 2 nephews, yada yada yada.
And I was SURE I was pregnant with a girl. I pictured the girls playing together, being BFFs, etc. When they told me he was a boy, I almost started crying. I literally have no experience with boys.
Prepare yourself for the possibility. Now that he's here, I wouldn't change it for the world. I am SO IN LOVE with this little guy!
:):):)
Okay that visual of Clara patting each of you really is hilarious! If it makes you feel any better, this little routine sounds an awful lot like what is happening in our house these days. (with L ending up in bed between us every single night). That also goes to show that she is far more advanced than L because she would NOT be doing something so sophisticated at this stage. Her little hands are totally uncoordinated still - she is lucky to grab on to her keys and hold them for over 5 seconds at at time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am sorry about the sadness. I HATE feeling sad, which, sadly, I have been feeling a lot lately too!
I can't wait to find out what you are having ... a girl would be nice, since you already have EVERY thing you need ... on the other hand, a boy would be so fun too!! Good thing you just CANNOT go wrong either way!
In my experience it is best to help babies master skills instead of thwarting their attempts. So if baby is waking up frequently because she rolls over and doesn't know how to roll back, give her lots of opportunity to learn how to roll from front to back. Or, have her sleep the whole night with you so that you can help her before she starts crying and wakes up fully.
ReplyDeleteI woke up the other day at around 4:30am ('cause that's when my 8 month old figures is a good time to get up) with Nicholas making noisy raspberries on my arm.
If your mood becomes so much of a problem that it impacts your ability to function and/or it lasts for more than 2 weeks, I would consider speaking with your dr. I had really bad post-partum depression with my first two, and I think that in both cases it started in the second trimester. I definitely should have sought help sooner, but I always just dismissed it.
The temptation is to think that you can't possibly be depressed, or to feel guilty about feeling depressed in such a wonderful situation, but it happens and it's not the mother's fault. You've had an amazingly turbulent year. Turbulent in a good way, but it can still be a challenge to process and assimilate all those changes all at once. In my first pregnancy, I too had experienced HUGE life changes and some stressfull events and that really contributed to my difficulty adapting to pregnancy and new motherhood.
Have you tried the Chinese gender predictor charts?
ReplyDeleteThey accurately predicted the gender of all three of my children.
It takes the mothers age and the month she conceived in to predict the gender.
Lauren LMBO-that sounds like something I would do! Velcro the baby to the bed ingenius! I love it, so fantastic! Then God has a sense of humor to because the baby turned over in his pj's! So funny!!! I literally have tears in my eyes that is so funny!
ReplyDeleteAYWH you are superwoman. That sickness for that long would break me down to tears. I hope it gets better!!!!
I told DH that since we both thing it's a boy it's going to be a girl. I just know it's a boy so therefore I know it's going to be a girl. Either or I'm not wrong. ;) hahahaha
Yeah, I was thinking girl. I am 34 weeks pregnant with a little girl and I didn't really feel the second trimester "relief" until 17 weeks. With my son, I felt better at 13 weeks on the nose.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Cathy on totally pushing the Miracle Blanket (a LIFESAVER), but unfortunately, once they start turning over (about four months), they can't use it anymore. So, that's out as an option for Clara's size and ability.
ReplyDeleteMy little guy's last night in his blanket was last night... he finally was able to wiggle out of it. But the good sleeping habits should continue.
I am so excited to find out if this baby is a boy or girl! So exciting! :)
No advice except it will pass. We went thru it with Faith for about 4-5 days and we thought of wedges everything and in the end I hear its when they hit milestones like rolling and then again when the can crawl etc...so it will pass ;)
ReplyDeleteSorry that Clara is having such issues with sleeping. Her patting you and R on the head sounds so adorable. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI have to second (or third) the Happiest Baby on the Block suggestions and the swaddling in huge blankets. The trick is finding blankets long enough. The cry it out did not work for us either and I was told it's b/c preemies especially have an immature nervous system and can't settle themselves. My son used to hyperventilate..actually he still does that (yikes).
ReplyDeleteAnother option that the nurses at his medical daycare used to do is put the Boppy pillow in the crib with him, having it around him made him feel secure. I don't know about that one but hey if hospital nurses did it then I guess it's perfectly safe.
I didn't have the second trimester contentment until after 20 weeks, so hopefully it will still happen for you. It sure wasn't bliss, just a general sense of well-being that I knew was hormonal. I felt pretty horrible, including sad, scared, and nauseous, up through 20 weeks. I hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDelete