Graem is back to her baby insomnia stage! She was napping well for about 3 days, then last night she decided that she was going to pull an all-nighter and party! I first tried to take her up to bed at 7:30 PM, and she thrashed and yelled until around 8:15 PM, so Shawna tried to take a shift. After another 15 or 20 minutes, they came back downstairs and she started giggling and playing. Then at around 9:00 she started melting down, so we stuck her in her crib. She was sitting up and playing with her crib gadgets and talking to herself. Another thirty minutes or so of semi-crying, and we grabbed her and brought her into the living room with us, AGAIN. She was laughing and giggling and talking, and playing with her ball-processor. She started getting louder and louder at around 10 PM, so Shawna told me to take her up. Finally, after about 10 minutes of nursing (without the kicking and scratching and back-arching this time) she passed out. And she only woke up crying three times last night.
We keep wondering “What’s different?” about the days that she decides to be an insomniac, but we can’t quite put a finger on it. Yesterday she slept til noon, and had a mini-nap in the car. Maybe she got too much sleep yesterday. Then we wonder if we do too much with her during the day, but somehow we can’t imagine doing any less since we spend most of our weekends trying to get her to nap, or entertaining her when she isn’t.
As tiring as it gets–I do get frustrated to tears some weekends–I still think she’s the most adorable, cutest and funniest baby. We keep calling her Bad Baby and hope she doesn’t get a complex over it. Lately she loves staring and laughing at herself in the mirror, and I tell everyone she gets that from Shawna. It’s also been amazing me that she has figured out to work the ball-processor: she pushes the lever and the ball comes rolling down to the tune of some obnoxious Fisher Price song.
I can’t believe my life has been reduced to naps and baby poops. The change to solid poops has been a welcome relief from the days of yellow-stained baby AND mommy clothes, but a sad one as I mourn her newborn-baby stage. And the next time we get a runny poop will be one of illness and stress. As embarrassing as it is to admit, Shawna and I call each other over to look at the new shapes and colors of Graem’s poops. And we stare in disbelief when we see her diaper full of something the dog or cat could have snuck in there.
