Confessions of a New Mom

Sometimes reading baby books will save your life/sanity -- like when Dr. Harvey Karp told us about the 5 S's of soothing your fussy baby in The Happiest Baby on the Block. Sometimes you'll take some and leave some --- like when experienced nanny Tracy Hogg, The Baby Whisperer, told us to tune in to our baby's cues (worked) and to put her down "awake but drowsy" and "check and console" her, rather than hold her till she's completely passed out (not gonna happen - at least not yet). Sometimes, a book will make you feel completely incompetent and hopeless, that either you have no clue what you are doing or your baby is just a complete freak of nature providing you unique challenges no other parent has ever had to face!

Susanna's self-soothing skills at night are kind of non-existent --- it's pretty much a boob in her mouth for a couple minutes to get back to sleep or hours of Screamfest 2007 --- how is a sleep-deprived parent to choose? We went to Dr. Marc Weissbluth of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, who seems to have a one-size-doesn't-fit-all approach to sleeping and babies. While he assured us that Susanna just still may be too young to break this habit (comforting), he also provided some data that is kind of frustrating to compare my baby to. Most babies her age sleep about 15-16 hours a day including a couple long naps during which mommies get to eat, do the dishes, take a shower or make some phone calls. A very small percentage seem to need as little as 12 hours of sleep to be alert and pleasant during waking hours. While we are very blessed to often get 7-9 hour stretches at night, some days that is about it!!! It's been several weeks since I've seen this kid nap more than 45 minutes; more often it's 20 minutes tops, maybe twice a day! Needless to say, boxes are not getting unpacked and "working from home" is not happening. Dr. Weissbluth would probably praise her for such a long "consolidated sleep" period at night, and she's not showing signs of being overtired, but man, sometimes I just wish she was more of a napper. She can look like she's completely in la-a land in your arms but the second she's put down on some other seemingly comparable soft, warm sleeping surface her eyes shoot open wide like "What do you think you're doing, lady?"

Alas, we are still rocking and swaddling to sleep and making memories. When I said to my grandmother "Oh, we probably won't have to do this forever, maybe a few more months," she informed me of the Shaffer family non-sleeping gene: "I had to rock your dad to sleep for 2 1/2 years!" Oy!

The only way anyone in our house gets a long nap:



(For those of you wondering how I find the time to update the blog: I mastered the one handed typing while nursing trick way back in week two when we realized Susanna was a 30-45 minutes per side kind of eater. I hear other babies nurse 10-15 minutes per side the first few weeks, then 5-10 after that. We're still at 10-20, of course! Our special baby is simply incomparable!)