Monday, September 26, 2016

Why did babies get a startle reflex and not a sleep one?

Naptime with the swaddle:
Ginny: I'm so sleepy...
Me: Let's wrap you up and put you to bed.
Ginny: No, I'm fine! I don't want to nap.
*give her the pacifier and place my hand on her chest*
Ginny: Pacifier is fun. And woah, I'm tired. Actually, here's the pacifier back. My eyes aren't opening anymore. Zzzz...

Naptime without the swaddle:
Ginny: I'm so sleepy.
Me: Here is your crib.
Ginny: No, I'm fine, I don't want to nap!
Me: Umm... here's the pacifier?
*tries to give pacifier*
Ginny: You're doing it wrong. Let me hold it. And hold your hand. With both my hands. And wait, I can roll over. *rolls over* I don't want to be in the crib! *cries*
*tries to give pacifier*
Ginny: Hmm, pacifier. Let me hold it. No, wait, I'm on to you. I don't want to be here! *cries**gets head up, moves head to the other side* I don't like this side! *cries**gets head up, moves head to other side*
Me: Pacifier?
Ginny: I hate your stupid pacifier! And now my sheets are wet! *cries*
Me: They wouldn't be wet if you stopped crying on them. *moves baby*
Ginny: I don't want to nap! You can't make me! *cries*
Me: You sound completely exhausted...
Ginny: But I hate sleeping! *cries*
Me: Let's try your back.
Ginny: Hey, you moved me. Am I getting up?
*put hand on her chest and offer pacifier*
Ginny: Oh, that pacifier thing again. Nah, I want to roll over. Your hand is holding me back. I want to roll over! *cries and struggles*
*remove hand*
*rolls over* Man, I'm so tired. I'm so tired it makes me upset. *cries*
Me: You need to sleep, little girl.
Ginny: I don't know how to sleep! I'm so tired! *cries*
*pats back ineffectually. Offers pacifier*
Ginny: I don't want it! I'm too tired! *cries**blinks heavily**starts just fussing* This sucks! *cries hysterically, pushes head up*
*stands there ineffectually*
Ginny: I'm so tired I can't sleep. *cries exhaustedly**cries hysterically**cries exhaustedly**cries hysterically**cries exhaustedly*
Me: *cries*

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

23:30... why...

First off, in response to my last post.







































There. Headband. Only way I could make it more obvious is to put a stamp on her forehead that says "girl."

So it is 23:30. And I'm awake.

Last night, I couldn't get to sleep. I was just falling asleep at 02:00 when Ginny woke up for the first time. I must be going through a sleeping regression. And here I thought Ginny was the one who was supposed to get those.

It's bad enough when Ginny manages to sleep until like 03:30 or 04:00 and I wake up at 03:30 and worry that she died in her sleep or something which negates the point of her sleeping for seven to eight hours in a row. Clearly I'm not ready for her to sleep through the night. If she would only get to the point where she would actually go to sleep at bedtime and then only wake up once during the night at like 03:30... Perfect. Almost. Perfect for me at this time.

Or whatever stage of life I was in before last night. So last night I couldn't sleep and I was super sleepy tired all day today. Ginny has a sixth sense about when I leave the house or need a nap and she shortens hers accordingly, so my daughter took mostly short naps all day and as a result, I didn't get a nap. And there's nothing more disappointing then almost falling asleep and then hearing a baby cry and knowing you have to get up for it. First world problems, I can't deal with it.

I'm like, "Hey, tonight I'll crash. It will be good."

Well...

I don't know, my throat is kind of scratchy. It keeps drying out when I breathe in and that's super irritating. So instead of tossing for three hours, I got up and made myself some echinacea tea, which I generally just refer to as "immune boosting tea" because I can't pronounce echinacea, after googling if it was safe while nursing of course. I was going to add honey and lemon for throat coating, but my lemon juice expired like three years ago, so I just added honey and honey in tea is gross.

My tea is gone now. I guess I'll go and try and sleep again. Seriously, if I don't get sleep, I'll be like the walking dead tomorrow and that's no good way to take care of a baby.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

On the appropriate color coding of infants

On Sunday, my child wore this:



















It's a bit blurry because my husband is bouncing her. She has to be in a constant state of motion or have something to look at while awake.

It's basically a white onesie with ruffled sleeves with pink on the edges, light pink pants, and pink-striped socks.

And she got mistaken for a boy twice.

David says people always assume babies are boys.

Hence all the pink.

Look, there are two reasons I dress my child in pink even though I do not like the color and I don't particularly like that girls are always assigned pink.
1) I want to communicate her gender accurately more than I dislike that social shortcut.
2) Most of her clothes were given to me and are, as a result, pink. Heck, even some of the stuff I bought was pink. But with cute little foxes on them.

Anyway, I don't want people to think she is a boy, largely because I highly value clear communication. And then I feel obligated to correct them whenever they assume she is a boy, or at least head off the question. Kids her age don't have a whole lot to their identities other than their first and middle name, family position, gender, and amount of hours they sleep at night. Cause that's what everybody asks.

Sidetrack for a moment. Why does everyone ask if she is sleeping through the night? I've heard people ask the mother of a two-week-old if he was sleeping through the night. At two weeks, they generally advise you to wake the baby up like every four hours to feed if they aren't waking up on their own, so it'd be a bad sign if they were sleeping through that! I never asked anybody that until after I had a kid, and the reason I ask is for polling data. How does my child measure up to the norm? Are other people in my boat? He still wakes up three-plus times? I feel your pain.

In case you're wondering, no, she isn't sleeping through the night. Generally though she wakes up an average of two times and goes back to sleep after nursing pretty easy and doesn't wake up for the morning until usually after seven. Could it be better? Much. Would I prefer it better? Definitely. Livable? Yes, way better than 0-2. So given the options, I'll take this.

Where was I? Ah yes. The proper color coding of infants.

I like dressing her in stuff that is either girly-styled or girly-colored, although preferably not too much of both at the same time.

I tend to like things that use bold colors, like orange and turquoise, patterns like arrows, or girly up an outfit, like a lacy onesie under blue denim overalls. Feminine touches to gender-neutral things.

Sunday's outfit was a vague reflection of mine as I didn't feel like wearing a skirt and so wore khaki capris. And clearly, I failed in my attempts to communicate (through the liberal application of pink) her gender.

Why do I care if people think she's a boy? Why do I need her to look like a girl? Gender is fluid?

No. I'm not even getting into that. We're talking about when the world was normal.

At any rate, I prefer it when other people dress their kids in something that at least hints as to their sex so I can use the proper pronouns when talking about him or her. Asking "is it a boy or a girl?" can be construed as insulting (especially if the child in question is older).

And so I am failing. I guess the pink pants were too light-colored. I need to up my game. More frills? Skirts? Headbands? Earrings? A label on her forehead?

On headbands... I've never really gotten into those for babies. I mean she doesn't have hair... so what's the point? I have seen some babies with impressive full heads of hair and headbands look cute on them, but on my baby's bald noggin?

Ah well, if it's for communication... anybody know some cute, yet comfortable headbands that are about as obvious as a label maker?












Behold the baby glory.

No, she's a girl.