wonder week 19 (warning: boring mom stuff)

my daughter  cried more the past 3 days than she has her entire life. it was awful. needless to say, we're all exhausted.  she is 18 weeks old (in her 19th week), so it was "wonder week" time again.  and it was not wonderful.  but, some wonderful things seem to have come out of it:

promise started rolling over (back to tummy) on monday!  3 times in her crib and once on the floor. so cute! but it freaks me out that she's mobile all of the sudden - i need to baby proof.

she started blowing raspberries a few days ago. hilarious!  i'm not sure what inspired this, but she cracks herself up when she does it.  yesterday when i went to get her in the morning she smiled up at me and then blew a raspberry. love it! (this video is before she had completely mastered it, but its funny)

she's becoming interested in peek-a-boo.  the big transition during this wonder week is 'object permanence' - which means she realizes that things still exist when she can't see them. hence, the fascination with peek-a-boo.

she's also become much more vocal. she's making more sounds - throwing in consonants more often, talking more to her toys and animals, and is more expressive with her facial expressions when she "talks" to us. so cute (yes, i do think everything she does is cute!)

and sleep...

we've been struggling with bedtime for quite a while now.  ideally we would do bedtime routine, she would eat, and go down in her crib awake but sleepy. for every nap she goes down awake and puts herself to sleep, no problem. but at this time of day she would just lay there and cry until crying turned to screaming and mom came to rescue her.  since she is quite capable of going to sleep on her own and it was consistently the same time of day, i realized this was witching hour.  then, for the past couple of weeks it morphed - she would fall asleep as she finished eating. and she would sleep hard.  i would try to wake her -move her around, burp her more, tickle her feet - nothing. so i had been putting her down asleep. she would sleep for about 30-45 minutes and then wake up crying. during naps she sometimes wakes up and whines/cries for 10 minutes and goes back to sleep. but not at bedtime.  so i would end up rocking her until her dreamfeed at 10. she slept off and on in my arms during that time, then i would feed her and put her to bed and she went straight to sleep.

*sidenote: i love love love holding and rocking my baby. but, this was very frustrating night after night for weeks on end because this is the time of night i would like to spend with my husband. we both have stuff going on during the day. i go to bed a lot earlier than he does (after the 10pm feed) and he sleeps a lot later than i do, but this is the time we sit together and watch tv, eat dinner, and catch up. so one of us holding a baby from 7-10 meant we couldn't eat dinner together or snuggle on the couch, or anything else that requires not holding a baby!


so 3 nights ago, she did not fall asleep eating and just screamed for about an hour and a half. this has never happened before!  the longest promise has ever cried inconsolably was like 20 minutes - and that was during the colic phase when i was still eating dairy.  she finally fell asleep in my arms at 8:30. i held her until 10 but i was not about to wake her to eat. it just seemed mean. i put her in her crib told jonathon to bring her to me when she woke to eat. she didn't wake until 5:40!

let me add, she has been waking in the 5 o'clock hour for a week or so too. no idea why. she's not hungry, but she wakes up and whines and talks to herself. i really should be just leaving her in her crib, but i'm exhausted so i had been putting her in bed with me (ah! don't tell on me!)


2 nights we put her down asleep again and she slept until 520.  so, apparently its time to drop the dreamfeed. (last night she woke at 330 to eat, but she hadn't eaten well in the day so this didn't surprise me). i guess this is good because she's sleeping longer. but i'm a little concerned about her going down to 5 feedings per day because she's so little.  i have fed 10 minutes on one side in that 5 o'clock hour and putting her back to bed until 730 for the past few days because i was nervous about her skipping that last feeding.  today i had to really work to get her to wake up and eat at 730, so apparently she doesn't really need that early morning feeing either.  i think i will slowly wean it back though to break the habit of her waking at that time - i don't want to do cry-it-out for that. hmm.... maybe i will talk to my lactation consultant or pediatrician first. i'm not sure about this one.

i think wonder week is almost over. i'm glad. but i'm excited about all the new wondrous things my baby is doing!