Saturday, August 19, 2006

on our own

P. left today to go off and defend his dissertation back in Old City. That means D. and I are on our own until next Saturday. Yowza. The past few nights D. has been an absolute terror, crying or screaming for two or three hours with little reprieve. P. is very good at getting him to stop, at least temporarily, by doing these deep knee bend/bouncy kind of things. I'm very inept at them. Sometimes I can get D. to go down and fall asleep by nursing him in bed, but sometimes D. just gets so worked up there's nothing I can do. So I'm pretty nervous about how these next several nights are going to go.

It seems to me that D. spends a lot of time sleeping during the day for a newborn (but how am I supposed to know what's normal?), and maybe that accounts for him being so wakeful at night? I've tried to spend some more time engaging him today while he's awake. I gave him a bath, tried to get him to play on his playgym (he especially likes the mirror), took him out for a ride in the car and a walk by the shore... but when he's fast asleep (like he is again now) I have a hard time finding the heart to wake him...

Maybe the kid will take pity on me tonight? I'm doing the best I can.

5 comments:

mc said...

What a great picture! And I hope your sleep issues even out... this seems to be the defining issue for parents of newborns.

I'm sure you've tried all the tricks to get him to stop screaming, but just in case... I'll mention that on Ess' worst night thus far, it took a combination of wearing her in a sling, bouncing on an exercise ball and running the hair dryer to get her to stop. It looked ridiculous, but it worked. Good luck over the next few days!

Leslie M-B said...

Hang in there! You can do it--just pledge to sleep when he sleeps this week. (I know it's hard, 'cause there's so much other stuff to do, but sleep anyway.)

Our little guy is almost a year old, yet he still wakes up 2 or 3 (or more!) times a night. Here's hoping D. figures out sleep sooner than that.

Good luck this week.

jo(e) said...

Oh, sleep deprivation is the worst. One of my kids was like that. (And it came as a shock, because his brothers had been easy babies.) You just have to do whatever works. I used to sometimes run the vaccum cleaner with the hopes that the sound would soother him. And even if it didn't, at least the sound drowned out his screaming so that it soothed me a little.

Hang in there ....

kp said...

Thank you, everyone. Last night went okay. He was fussy, but didn't have a total melt-down like I'd been worrying about. I pushed him in his swing, carried him around the house, and sat him on my lap and bounced on the mattress. The last of these finally calmed him down enough to want to nurse and just fall asleep. I'm sure tired today, though.

Anonymous said...

This is very interesting site... Vicodin skin infection Receive direct extension email guidance Free fax header Restorol2c alternative to lipitor cosmetic & reconstructive surgeons Time share employment Free downloads of spam blockers Military simulation2f scenario paintball guns Minnesota hiking Vardenafil generika Cosmetic dentistry victoria paul & joe cosmetics review plastic surgery lip Insurance companies participating in national flood program laser jet printer large format i ching online trading Cisco avvid Lincoln nebraska tennis lessons youth Fists of fury max hardcore