2010 April « Non-Linear with Miss Michelann

Swinging, playing, and YOGA

From the top left: Isabell, Charley, Lillian, and Cara

The last week has seen several general improvements. David has discovered (thanks for the tip, Tiffany) that sticking the baby in the car seat and swinging her back and forth conks her out, and we’ve both gotten more sleep for it. We also switched up the schedule, again. Now I go to sleep at 9 or 10 (David’s natural bed time) and he stays up for her middle of the night feeding (my natural bed time) if he can’t get her to sleep till then. Sounds crazy, but it’s working. We’re both getting 5-8 hours of sleep a night now. Well, I am when I don’t have stupid insomnia, but the last couple of nights have been pretty good. Also, good friends Gen and Chris lent us a swing, and that has been epic for letting me do fun things like eat breakfast and lunch and move laundry to the dryer. So nice!

I went to my first postnatal yoga class on Tuesday. It was trippy. You can nurse, change, burp the baby in the room. Anything goes. The decibel level rises and falls with the general contentedness of the babies and chattiness of the moms. Much of the class involves exercises with the babies, singing songs, and playing with the babies. It’s certainly nothing like a normal yoga class, but holy crap was it good to do yoga again. And to do poses I hadn’t done in almost a year! So very nice. I can’t wait to do more.

David and I had a date last Sunday. We dropped Lillian off at the grandparents and went out for brunch at Frank. It was surreal to be walking around downtown with no baby. A strange flashback to what our lives were like before. We planned on being out for at least 4 hours, Lillian was supplied with at least enough milk for one feeding and some change, but I started going through withdrawal after about 2 hours and wimped out. Seriously, I got all tired and sweaty. I swear my hormones are out to get me.

Anyway, she did fine and we got to have a nice meal. We’ve got a coupon for Hudson’s on the Bend that we want to use too, so there’s another date to plan.

Speaking of dates, I hosted my first play date today with Heather & Charley, Susan & Isabelle, and Tiffany & Cara. It was awesome! We all bitched and nursed and ate and nursed and bitched and changed diapers and nursed. We’ve all had our babies in the last seven weeks, and there are two other mamas from yoga who we hope will join in the fun soon. Heather and Susan were in my prenatal yoga classes – we were some of the die hard students, and Tiffany and I have belly danced together for a couple of years, and got pregnant within a week of each other. It’s so incredibly nice to have other moms to hang with who are going through the same kinds of stuff as me. And they’re all very cool ladies to boot. I took pictures!

Getting the party started

Cara models the latest in hats by Susan

Cara expresses her feelings about Lillian's outfit

Charley and his harem

Easter, Sleep Deprivation, and Car Seats

Easter Madness!

Lillian is six weeks old tomorrow. This is a good thing. Supposedly, the sleep patterns are starting to get better. Oh please God. If she catches a cold, she won’t have to be tested for meningitis. Woo! I can start taking her to yoga yay! I may even risk the grocery store!

Except we’ve been having a little trouble in the car. Not every time, but recently she’s been freaking out in the car. Like totally unhinged, beet red, screaming, sweating, drooling. So horrible to watch/hear. I’ve ended up pulled over by the side of the road in the back seat holding her and crying. David got to witness it the last time and he was pretty wigged out too. I know she’s okay (intellectually) but holy Jesus, what do you do when your kid is so freaking miserable and you can’t do anything about it? I feel like I want to pull a Brittany Spears and drive around with her in my lap. Not really, but you know? She can’t hear or see me when she’s freaking out and it suuuuuuuucks. Ah, parenthood.

Our other lack of fun is some bad, bad sleep deprivation. She seems to have her days/nights reversed, and the more awake she is, the more upset she gets about gas and such. So there has been much screaming, and very little sleep. David usually takes pity on me around 11 or 12 and takes over, despite his own serious lack of sleep, but it’s been stressful for us both. She’s a total sweetheart during the day. Eats, hangs out, sleeps, poops. And then at night all hell breaks loose.

Okay, everyone has advice and it all sucks. I just talked to the nurse at the pediatrician and he had totally contradictory advice from other experts. Keep her awake during the day (except I read that just makes her more overstimulated and crotchety), feed her Pedialite for her last feeding so she doesn’t get too full (what?), and give her gripe water and mylicon. I might try that one. And all of this is based on his experience with his very large two week old, which would have nothing in common with my small six week old. Yeesh.

Seriously, I have no idea what will work. I started cluster feeding in the evenings in the beginning on the advice of another friend, and I think that’s actually contributing to the problem, since she may be over full. She’s eating more, more spaced apart during the rest of the day which seems easier on her tummy.

Anyways. Easter! We went to the Quimby’s and Lillian got to meet some more of her cousins, and get cuddled by lots of people. She screamed all the way there and back, but was nice and mellow during the event itself. She looked very cute in her little dress as well.

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Swinging, playing, and YOGA

Easter, Sleep Deprivation, and Car Seats