The Comings and Goings of Lil G

Well, we almost made it to two nights in the crib. I think the first night must have been a fluke due to Geneva’s vaccinations. I think they zonked her out. Last night was full of multiple wakings, up til the grand finale at 5:30 when she refused to go back to sleep. This Mama is tired.

The sitting-up part is progressing at lightning speed – she almost reflexively puts her hands in front of her to steady herself. I have no idea what I’m going to do with a sitter on my hands.

I had to adjust Geneva’s jumperoo up to the next size. She looked like she was going to hit the ceiling the way she was bouncing. The jumperoo is a freestanding bouncy seat. It has a seat suspended from three coiled springs. I don’t quite know how to describe G. when she gets in the thing, but possessed might work. She bounces and kicks and grins real big. Only her toes are supposed to touch the ground in the jumperoo; but she’s grown so much in the past month that she was almost flat-footed on the floor! Rob can make her giggle and dance in that thing. I’ll try to capture some video of her going all out.

We’re still not very interested in rolling. We have ‘tummy time’ every day and Geneva likes to smile at herself in a little mirror. But no rolling.

Today we have a lunch date with our friend Nathaniel so we can see his new apartment. Then, we’ll scoot over to the west side of town to drop some bottles off to a new friend. We’ll get to see GiGi and Granddaddy tonight for supper and then visit with Aunt Hannah tomorrow morning. The weekend will go out with a bang on Sunday down in Monticello, where Geneva will get to meet even more of her gigantic family!

Over n’ out…

Details to come soon…

We’ll, we’ve all managed to make it four months! The sleeping issues are slowly resolving themselves and Geneva is just a bright little star. At her check-up this morning, Dr. Norwood squeezed her little legs and was delighted with our big girl. Geneva’s stats were: 27 inches long and 17 lbs. 11 oz. I discussed her eating and sleeping habits and Dawn (the nurse practitioner) suggested that Geneva might have experienced a prolonged growth spurt – not uncommon around this age. Dawn rolled her around on her tummy, helped her sit up, and then stood her up. She was very impressed with how strong G. is.

I was a little concerned about Geneva’s head being a tad flat on the backside and Dawn reassured me that she’d “seen A LOT worse” and it would round out more as Geneva started sleeping more in her crib. It was nice to have someone “official” pat my hand and tell me I wasn’t going to hurt the baby by letting her fuss and cry some. Rationally, I knew Geneva would be okay with all the crying – I think I was just looking for some approval. We’ve had 3 nights of okay sleeping. This weekend we’ll be working toward a full night in the crib. It’s a long weekend, so we’ll have plenty of time to nap in case it doesn’t work!

Geneva received more of her vaccines today. I’ve opted for Geneva to receive her full round of shots – just broken up into two separate visits. I think all those shots are too much to get at one time. There is a great deal of vaccine hysteria going around regarding links to autism and other developmental delays. Many mothers are now foregoing the vaccines due to these fears. I’m not buying into the hype and would rather be safe than sorry.

Hope you enjoy the video!

We have Gramma J. to thank for some of our good looks, dontcha think? Geneva loves her Gramma!

I think all the crying being done around here has had an unintended effect: Geneva has started burbling a little more. This evening before bath time, she began ooohing and ahhhing in a staccato fashion. She seemed to trying different sounds and was forming her lips cautiously while making the noises. Rob said we’ve hit the beginning of the end. Ha ha. 

The new foot game is continuing also. Lil’ G appears to be right-side dominant. She’s a little quicker to grasp with her right hand and the right foot is the one that’s doing all the dancing in the air right now. G sorta kicks it out and touches her toes. 

The hand/eye coordination is coming along nicely. Most everything put in her hands goes directly to her mouth! Geneva’s favorite toy right now is a rattle that has a round ring and stuffed bee attached to the ring. She’ll hold the ring in one hand and slap the rattle against the ground for a few minutes at a time. I think she likes the noise. When not rattling the rattle, she likes to chew on the fuzzy antennae of the bee. After a while of nibbling and noisemaking, Geneva will get pretty mad that she can’t fit the round part of the rattle in her mouth and she’ll toss it to the side. 

Day 2 of Poo Watch has come and gone with no sign of action. I think Geneva’s holding out for Aunteee Hannah’s birthday party tomorrow. Won’t that be some gift!!

Geneva got to see her Uncle Pat and Aunt Krystal yesterday before they flew back home to Austin, TX. She treated them to a few smiles and giggles before her usual bedtime meltdown. Last night was more of the same, with a couple changes: I fed her at 11 p.m. (which hasn’t happened for some time) and brought her into bed with me until she fell asleep. I know, I know. The Peanut Gallery out there probably wants to collectively konk me over the head for doing it, but nothing else is working.

After an hour nap from 8-9 p.m., she was awake for two more hours crying off and on. She would sleep 5 minutes, be awake for 10 minutes, etc. I finally fed her, thinking that might be the issue and she kept on. At about 11:20, after Rob and I had ripped some of our hair out, I brought her into bed with me where she promptly fell asleep. I woke up around 12:30 a.m., put her in her car seat in her room and roused Rob off the couch (he was watching the Olympics and fell asleep). She woke up at 5:30 a.m. for a feeding and then proceeded to break all records and sleep until 10:30 a.m.! I started getting antsy around 10 a.m. because I DEFINITELY do not want her to start experiencing some kind of day/night reversal like she had when she was really tiny.

So, until I talk to the pediatrician on Tuesday, we’re going to forego the crying business and just proceed as normal (normal = crying+binky). If I have to take her to bed with me again tonight, I’ll do it. Maybe I can figure out some way to parlay the comfort/security she felt in bed with me to her own crib. I might need to get a comfy chair…

Geneva has it and I’m beginning to get it. The stare, I mean. The lack of good sleep is hitting me again and I don’t deal very well with it. You can ask Rob. My voice starts cracking and then come the tears. That’s when Rob sends me to bed to get an hour of shut-eye before tackling our sleepless child again. If you can imagine, I was a complete mess for the first month of Geneva’s life. I fear for Rob’s sanity because not only is he looking after a cranky kid, but he’s got me to look after too. That guy deserves a gold medal. He’s an awfully good man and us girls are doubly-lucky to have him.

When Geneva’s tired, her eyes glaze over and she makes a hooting noise. We try not to let her get to the hooting, because that means we’ve crossed the threshold from tired to you-better-get-me-in-bed-before-I-meltdown tired. People who’ve heard her making that noise think she’s laughing. It ain’t laughing.

I’m afraid my own stubbornness has cursed me. Geneva is proving herself to be about stubborn as they come. After dealing with yet another night of her waking EVERY time her pacifier fell out of her mouth, Rob and I decided to let her cry for a bit. It was 11 p.m. and we had put her to bed around 8:30. She should have been zonked out. So she cried. And cried. And cranked it up and cried some more. We let her go for about 15 minutes before I intervened. I rocked her to sleep and laid her in her crib.

And she woke right up 20 minutes later.

I think she finally knocked out around 1 a.m. with a wake-up around 6 a.m. for a feeding. She’s hoarse as can be from the histrionics last night and I’m left feeling I can’t win for losing. Her pediatrician’s appointment is on Tuesday. Not sure if she’ll have any words of wisdom for us. Rob and I just shrug our shoulders at each other. He’s waiting for me to say what we should do and I’m waiting for him to tell me what to do. 

Trying to end on a more positive note again, I think I saw Geneva’s first attempt at tripod sitting. She was sitting on her quilt and leaned waaay far forward. She pushed herself up with her hands once before she began grunting from the pressure on her tummy. She also grabbed her foot for the first time. She was laying in her crib and began fiddling around with one of her feet. It appeared sort of absentminded, but she’s never done that before.

Patsy Cline would be proud! Last night’s efforts didn’t go off so well either. I laid her in her crib after she had eaten and left her alone with some of the fading sunlight coming through her window. We tried to go Bink-less at first. She hooted and ‘ain-ed’ for a few minutes before we went into full blown crying. I think I let her go for about 10 minutes from the beginning to the melt-down. I dipped in twice to pat her tummy and shush her. By the third time I got in there, she was crying and hitching so hard I though she was going to vomit. Not pretty. It was scared crying.

I experimented by sticking her thumb in her mouth and she started sucking like crazy. Unfortunately, she’s not quite coordinated enough to keep her thumb in. So I Binked her up. And she fell asleep for about an hour. I think she just wore herself out. Just to keep things consistent with the previous nights, she woke about every 15 minutes between 10 p.m. and midnight. We’re talking full awakenings. She goes from dead asleep to a full yowl in zero seconds. I’m fairly certain the Bink falling out of her mouth is what causes this; however, I’m at a loss to figure out how to fix it. I’ve tried hovering over her and gently removing it when she’s sleeping only for her to wake up protesting. I keep feeling guilty that I brought this upon myself for caving in the hospital and allowing her to have a pacifier in the first place. Let the weaning commence.

So, back she went into her car seat – where she slept until 6:30 a.m. She got up, ate a little, and went back down until almost 10.

Most of my reading on the sleep subject has boiled our sleep problems down to a central point: around 4 months of age, little folks become more aware of their surroundings. This mostly manifests itself in issues with bedtime. Previous crutches like nursing to sleep and waiting until she’s fully asleep before putting her to bed have now backfired and baby wants to know what you’re doing and “hey, why are you putting me in this crib?” Thus the whole self-soothing bit. Geneva has to figure out how to put herself to sleep. I’m hoping I’m only in for a couple weeks of this struggle before she begins to figure it out. Techniques like crying-it-out and Ferberizing are not recommended for a child this young. If we’re still having issues by 6 months, then we really crack down.

As a start to our new regime, I laid Geneva down for her first nap of today without her swaddle. I’ve been wrapping her tight as a burrito for naps, Binking her up and leaving the room. This usually puts her to sleep in record time. So, to get her used to flopping around unencumbered in her crib, I put her in her sleep sack (a modified blanket that she can’t get tangled in) and gave her the pacifier. She grunted around a bit, sucked on the Bink, and I heard it come out of her mouth. She grunted around some more and I waited tensely for the wail. She’s been asleep now for almost half an hour. What a kid!

Man, looking over this, I sound obsessed. I suppose you have to be to some extent. I guess Geneva is my full-time job at the moment so I have to focus on something. I’ve been debating on whether or not to blog here about my own issues with being a stay-at-home-mom. This may not be the forum for it. I’ll have to think about it some more.