**Warning. Long mommified post ahead. Non-mommy types can feel free to skip. No harm, no foul.**
When I got pregnant, I always thought that Em would sleep in our room in her Pack N Play for a couple weeks and then we'd transition her to the crib in her room. With her frequent night feedings - typically 3 or more - it just became easier to keep her with us. I wasn't looking forward to the not-so-long-but-still-not-conveniently-at-the-end-of-our-bed trek down our hall. Then I realized that a couple weeks had turned into a couple months, and thought it was time for her to get acquainted with her nursery.
I started off trying to put her down in her crib for naps, but that was problematic because I don't put her down for naps in general. I know when she's been up too long and it's time for a nap, but I just let her fall asleep and stay asleep wherever she is, for the most part. That's usually in her swing -- which she loves so much that I bought another one off Craigslist to keep at my in-laws' -- in her car seat or on me while wrapped in the Moby.
The first few times I tried to get her to nap in her crib? Fail. And on Saturday when Brent commented about how he was worried that Em shouldn't be swinging so much, I showed him exactly how tough it was to get her to nap in her crib. She cried and cried and cried some more, basically crying right through her typical time for naps. (We didn't let her "cry it out" - we'd pick her up when she started to cry, then put her down when she was almost asleep only to have her wake up again and start crying.) Then I decided that we should try swaddling her for her nap like we do when we put her to bed, something I was trying to stay away from as it's not good for babies' joint development to be swaddled for longer than 10 hours. We swaddled her and she finally napped in her crib... for about half an hour. Back to the swing it was.
Sunday evening I told Brent that I wanted to try to put her to bed in her crib, but if it looked like it wasn't going to work then it'd be back to our room for the night. I didn't want to battle putting her to sleep on my lonesome - if it was going to take a fight, then I'd rather it be on a weekend evening when Brent could stay up and help me fight the fight. But Sunday's attempt turned out to be ok. It took three or four times to get her to fall asleep somewhat happily in her crib, but once she was out she slept her usual 3-4 hours before waking up for her next feeding. I slipped into bed and watched her for a few minutes via our video monitor. (Totally awesome product, by the way. It has night vision!)
Monday evening started out even better. She passed out after her feeding. And I mean, passed out. Nothing seemed to stir her, and we didn't want to jinx it so we carefully wrapped her up in the swaddle blanket without evening changing her into her pjs. She was fine until 4 hours later, when she woke up and basically stayed up for 2 1/2 hours. I'd feed her, try to burp her with no luck, put her down asleep only to have her wake up 20 minutes later crying from gas pain. She'd burp easily then, and then be hungry for more. So I'd feed her, try to burp her again with no luck, put her down asleep and then she'd wake up again from the gas. Ugh. Once I got her down comfortably, though, she was back into her typical sleeping ritual, even allowing us to sleep until about 7:45.
Last night, though, was a bit insane. It started in the evening, after I had gone in for what I call a breastfeeding tune-up. I had a late afternoon follow-up appointment with my lactation consultant to work on Em's latch technique, which had gotten sloppy. When I got her home, I fed her some more.
Then she flipped out.
It was definite gas pain, and I knew exactly what did it.
For lunch all I ate was a big bowl of leftover Thanksgiving sweet potatoes. And Monday evening I had some with dinner, followed by her crazy gas episode in the middle of the night. By deduction I figured that sweet potatoes are not Em's friend. I tried everything to calm her down - gas drops, gripe water, burping, and then a special baby hold that my lactation consultant had recommended. I held Em with her back against my stomach and her legs pulled up, her feet in my hands as I walked around the house. That worked much better than the ol' bicycle trick. She seemed happy for a bit, but then the hard cries came again. The interweb told me that a warm bath might calm her down and relax her stomach muscles. Thankfully Brent was home by then, so he tried to calm her as I scrambled to pull the bath together. And wouldn't you know it, as soon as she got in, she was relaxed. And wouldn't you know it again, as soon as we got her out, again with the crying.
Ugh.
By then it was time for her to eat again, so we gave her a bottle of milk I'd pumped pre-sweet potatoes. She gulped it down, BURPED (it's the simple pleasures, folks), and then passed out. She then slept the longest she ever has - nearly 6 hours! The next feeding was simple - eat, burp, back to sleep. But this morning's early feedings were a little hectic. 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 - then more of the gassy crying, but not nearly as frantic as last night's crying, followed by TWO huge poopy diapers. (I'll spare you anymore details.) Relief at last for all involved.
I knew I had to blog about this so when I think back about transitioning to her crib, it won't be all dandelions and unicorns.
If you've made it this far, you deserve a gold star. And I've made it this far, so I deserve a little pampering. Grandma is coming over to watch Em and I'm off to the salon!
"You know, when you were a baby in your crib, your father looked down at you, he had but one hope - some day my son will grow to be a man. Well look at you now. You just got your asses whipped by a bunch of goddamn nerds." - Coach Harris, Revenge of the Nerds
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