Little bug is going to be 10 weeks tomorrow! Seriously, where does the time go? 10 weeks has always been a fun milestone for me from pregnancy until now. When I was pregnant it felt so good to get to double digits. It finally felt real that I was pregnant, and I felt less worried that I might miscarry. I started to feel like a real pregnant person, and things started getting fun. And then I got to 30 weeks, and I just had 10 left! And that was even more fun. Counting down from 10 made everything go by so quickly, and I could taste the end! And now she’s here, and she’s 10 weeks old. What a big girl.
Ten weeks has come in with a bang. I could write a book on the things I’ve endured in just the last two days. It really all started Sunday without me knowing it. Leah ate, and ate, and ate, and then ate some more. And then of course she spit up, and spit up, and spit up, and spit up some more. At first I didn’t think much of it, but by the end of the day I was wondering why on Earth she was so hungry?! So Sunday night rolls around and the screaming started, along with the fussy eating. But she slept fairly well that night, so it must have just been a fluke. Well. Monday comes, and this child would.not.sleep. She had one, hour and a half nap, and that was it! For the entire day. Now we all know she doesn’t like to sleep, but usually she will with some coaxing, but not this day. I could have bounced until my legs fell off and she was not closing her eyes. But by the end of the day, it hit me. Growth.spurt. I don’t know why it takes me so long to figure these things out. We have been through two of them now and the symptoms are the same every time. She is eats and thus spits up a ton, she is fussy, when she does eat she is a squirmy mess, she doesn’t sleep, I start to think something is wrong with her, and right before I figure it out I am usually talking to the baby sleep whisperer herself, Lauren Eisleben, and asking what on earth I can do to make her sleep. Like clockwork, I kid you not all of those things happen in order. So finally, I was feeling good about myself. I figured it out, she was just growing. Tonight she would sleep good, and Tuesday morning she would wake up bigger and well rested.
Ha! Monday night might have been the hardest, most exhausting night of her (and my life). We worked on getting her to bed from 8:30 to 10:30, and then she was up at 1:45…and wait for it… stayed up until 5:45. AM! I was absolutely beside myself - and sitting in my bed sobbing, listening to her cry in hers at 4:30, and not having the slightest clue what to do with her. Kyle took over at 5:30, and thank God she was asleep at 5:45. I wasn’t even tired anymore, well I was, but I was delirious. I woke up at 8:30 and decided to eat quickly before she woke up. I knew to keep her on her schedule I would have to wake her up at 9. But honestly, I was terrified to wake her up. We had not had a day or night like this one yet. Usually somewhere she makes up for her lack of sleep, and so far she had no signs of doing that. But luckily, or unluckily, I didn’t have the option of not waking her up. She was up on her own at 9am. And just like that, day two started. I kept waiting for her to “catch up” on some kind of sleep, but it never came. She didn’t close her eyes all day. Ok, I take that back, she had one 10 minute nap on her own, and then at about 3:30 she cried herself to sleep on my chest. We both stayed in the same position for two hours. I was terrified to move, she was finally sleeping! This was the first real nap she had had in two full days! I started doubting my growth spurt theory. We hadn’t had one this bad before. I couldn’t rock her to sleep in my arms, I couldn’t bounce her, I couldn’t get her to sleep in the bathroom with the fan on, and I even tried to let her cry herself to sleep – and after an hour and a half… I gave up. By the time Kyle got home I was spent. Stick a fork in me, I’m done. I had done everything under the sun, for two days straight, and nothing was working. I switched from growth spurt to ear infection, teething, separation anxiety, or more food allergies. I was at a complete loss. He took over for a while, and I went to get us some food. She still wasn’t asleep by the time I got home, so I ate my food. He put her down and she slept for about five minutes while he started his dinner. I went up to get her so he could eat, and because of my lack of energy, and lack of really caring to comfort her (bad mom, I know) I just put her on my chest and we cried together. And then it happened… Kyle opened his mouth. He never should have done that. Not only did he open his mouth, he opened it and said, “is that all you’ve done all day is let her lay on you and cry?” Wrong thing to say buddy. Wrong.thing.to.say. I think he regretted it after my 10 minute rant back at him. We spent the next hour or so in our separate corners. I’m sure it was just an honest question, but oh my goodness, how dare he?! He spent the next hour upstairs with Leah while I fumed and researched what on earth could be wrong with this child. I had decided it was not a growth spurt, but an ear infection. I would call the doctor in the morning, and for now I would give her some Tylenol. I took it upstairs, laid Leah on the bed and she just smiled at me for the next fifteen minutes. Happy as a peach. Okay, maybe it’s not an ear infection? What is going on with this child?! Someone, help! I gave her the Tylenol anyways, as it was my last resort. I was out of options. By then it was bathtime and bedtime. Somehow, I didn’t think there would be much of a bedtime tonight. But what do you know the little bug surprised me! She was asleep at 9! And to wrap this awful nightmare up… she slept til 3, went back to bed at 330, and woke up this morning at 8am! Hallelujah. And she woke up too long for her swaddle and feeling like lead. Mama knows best, growth spurt complete. Her napping is back to normal, her smiling is back to normal, and our lives are back to normal. Thank God. This one was a doosey.
So what do I know about my now heavier and longer little girl in her tenth week of life? Well for starters I think one of these days she is just going to kick her legs right off. She kicks and kicks like crazy! She is getting very good at following us around with her eyes. She likes to watch Kyle more than me, and will track him wherever he goes. It’s pretty cute. She will also turn to look at us if she hears us talking. She is very fond of her green frog, and smiles and talks to him a lot. She is trying very hard to roll from her back to her front, and sometimes I just want to give her a little push to help her along. But I won’t. She still cries in the car, but if we turn her rainforest lullaby CD on it seems to calm her down. We have also gone a couple places without her screaming… is she getting used to it?! We shall see. Besides her growing days, she is pretty much a pro at bedtime. Having a bedtime means Kyle and I have to be at home by 8, which sometimes is a bummer – but no one is complaining about her sleeping. I think Leah and I will have an outing soon of shoe shopping! During the summer she didn’t need them, but now that it’s cooler I think she’ll need some. Every girl needs a good pair of boots! She experienced her first football Sunday, and she actually watched a lot of it, ha. She’s must be a daddy’s girl. I sat her on my lap facing the TV, and she actually sat there for about ten minutes just gnawing on her hands, watching the game. Ten minutes in Leah time is an eternity! She has experienced church two more times. The second time we went with her was a complete bust! It was hymn night! I actually kind of like hymns, they can be soothing. Well, Leah does not like to be soothed. She didn’t calm down the entire time. I actually had to take her out during the preaching. I was counting on the worship to relax her like the first time, but the hymns were just too slow. We never made it to relaxed. This child needs a light show and perhaps a drum solo to relax. But the following Sunday was a special September 11 service complete with a concert beforehand. And what do you know, Leah was completely relaxed and slept through the whole service! Somehow we’ll have to be warned of the hymns ahead of time so we don’t make that mistake again.
Speaking of September 11th, this was Leah’s first. It was kind of surreal to me to think about the world she was born into. It is definitely a different world than her parents. She is not going to know what it’s like to fly without having to put hand sanitizer in a Ziploc bag. And I’ll have to explain to her why. She will grow up knowing exactly what Al-Qaida is. She will hear all about terrorists. She will know about the World Trade Centers even though they don’t exist anymore. I didn’t know what they were until they fell. She will study that day in history, she will bring homework home about it, and Kyle and I will be able to give her firsthand knowledge. It’s pretty bizarre. And sad. I could probably count the number of times I heard about terrorism on one hand before September 11th. And now Leah will grow up with it, hearing about it more often than I’d like. I held her a little closer that day (even though she squirmed), and I thought about how I’ll try my best to shield her from all of the evil things in this world. I was also a little more grateful for Kyle on that day. So many wives lost husbands, and little girls lost daddies. What we the two of us do without him? He had a softball game Sunday night right at bedtime. So while he was there, Leah and I were holding down the fort. Obviously, I can do bedtime by myself, but it’s so much easier with him. And Leah enjoys it more, too. But even though it was more difficult, I knew that he would be home in just a couple hours and all would be well again. And I thought to myself on Monday morning how lucky we were again, because we got a September 12th with him. Something so many families didn’t get ten years ago, and still aren’t getting.
That’s all she wrote for today. And your conversation is in regards to football Sundays:
Me: I think Leah likes football
Kyle: Ya she does. We’re gonna watch all the football together. And eat chips, and popcorn, and have the beer.
Me: What, when she’s 21?
Kyle: Well, she can bring me the beer.
(I should clarify that 1)He is not an alcoholic, and 2)I will make sure that Leah never has to bring her dad beer).
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