When other people (either in real life or on the internets) have their babies, I am always amazed at how fast time seems to pass. Like, suddenly, my friends' babies are three months old or six months old or are celebrating their first birthdays.
But time is passing sloooooooowwwwwly for me now. I am hoping it will seem to speed up at some point soon. Right now, we're trading off shifts with the baby, who is, shall we say, not entirely pleased about everything in his new existence. He's sleeping in his bassinet in his pack-n-play right now while my husband is upstairs getting some sleep. My mom arrives tomorrow, so I am hoping we can transition from our downstairs existence with the baby (which has taken over our living room) to a nighttime, upstairs existence. The nursery still looks good because it has not been used at all. The pack-n-play, however, has been on duty constantly. I recommend buying a full-featured one with the changing table, storage areas, etc. Invaluable!
My sleep is parceled out into one- to two-hour increments throughout a 24-hour period. Normally, I sleep 8-9 hours a night, so the shift to six interrupted hours has been rough for me. After my mom returns home and my husband returns to work, I think I will need to line up some help. There are no night nurses in this area, apparently; at times like these, I wish I lived in an urban center again. I am also acutely feeling the lack of an extensive support network here. Suddenly, I realize why people might choose to live near their extended families! We are hoping to move out of our midsized town sometime in the next year, and I can guarantee that the question of a support network will be prominent in our minds when we choose where to live.
Tomorrow, we have a pediatrician appointment to check weight. On Tuesday, I have an appointment with my psychiatrist, where I assume we will discuss whether medication is indicated. Right now, I feel as if my low moods (which are intermittent) are just a normal reaction to stress and fatigue and the vicissitudes of breastfeeding, but Zo.loft takes a couple of weeks to work, so I expect I will feel as if I need to decide whether to take it before I really feel the need for it.
I'm going to try to catch a few winks before the shift change. I hope you are all doing well!
4 comments:
The first couple of weeks seems to go by so slowly like you're in a super haze. But it'll pick up relatively fast.
The crib takes a little time, and you might try putting the bassinet in his crib, but yeah, from tiny womb to big crib, the mini HATED his crib for a good few weeks or so. One thing that really helped us was sitting in the chair with him in the crib and just talking to him. Whatever your heart desires, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, world politics, they don't care. That seems to settle them down a bit. We started a routine off pretty early, which made the transition when he finally accepted the crib much easier. He's been "going to bed" at the same time now every night for the last 6 weeks or so, and now sleeps great in his crib at night.
Let's not talk about the day time, where he sleeps whenever, wherever, by any means necessary.
Hang in there, you actually do get accustomed to lack of sleep. Believe it or not. And before you know it, you're able to function on little sleep and then gradually they start to sleep more and more, and you feel human when you realize he slept for 4 solid hours. To a new parent, that's like winning the sleep lottery.
They told me it would get easier, and since I'm still in the thick of infancy (11 weeks today), I can really truly tell you with honesty, that it does get easier.
I have NO experience in this (yet) but I can say that it will get better!!
Until then, I hope you can function, and having your mom around for a bit will help too.
Update us (if you can) after the pediatrician appt.
My sympathies, to go along with my assurances that it gets easier & they get better at not screaming all night. We were saved by using a yoga/ excercise ball to bounce our infant. Fed her, loved on her, and then when none of that made her stop fussing/crying, we held her in a swaddle while bouncing on the ball and talking/singing to her. When we felt particularly close to fatigue induced insanity, we would watch TV in the dark while bouncing her. Kept us sane, the baby happier, and what a lovely thigh workout too!
Keep at it, and good luck!
My dear, please, for the love of god, call me when you need a rest. Nothing I'm doing is so important that I can't give you a hand when you need one. Most of the time people are afraid to intrude--but lady, if you need three or four hours of sleep, I can be there in a minute.
I realize that we won't be your extended network much longer, but use and abuse us while we're still here.
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