Tuesday, November 01, 2005

He is the great consoler - not me

It's very discouraging when the one thing I can count on to calm my baby down - feeding her - seems to be making her upset. Feeding seemed to be a real problem today. After each mid-feed burp session, I'd position her for the other side, only to watch her kick and scream. Either she was frustrated by lack milk/too much milk/milk tastes funny, or she was really tired. But putting Baby in the hammock didn't work, because hunger seemed to be keeping her from falling asleep. Aiyaah, what a vicious circle.

In the end, I fed her lots and got only two short catnaps out of her all day. The frequent feeds make me anxious that I was setting her up for an evening of windiness, which is never good (an evening of windiness means heaps of crying and a bedtime of midnight or later).

By the time the boy got home from work I was shuffling around the kitchen like I had chronic fatigue syndrome or something. Thankfully, he took over the task of bathing Baby and rocking her to sleep (yes, we're still rocking our baby to sleep every night). It didn't take him long to get her settled either, which I am heartily jealous of but at the same time pretty damned grateful for.

On the plus side, Baby's been going to bed for the night at around 7, which leaves me time to blog in the evening. Yay.

4 comments:

Martha Craig said...

I read somewhere in one of the many baby books, that a certain amount of stress can build up between mother and baby during the day and this is why you need a break.

Also dads don't have milk, and I believe that helps the baby forget they need it to soothe.

Man, your wee baby is making me clucky. Aaaargh! We keep very sensibly saying that two kids is a great number. We don't need an Odyssey, will have more time and money, but all the same I still hanker after another.

Rainypete said...

Our little guy was doing this the other night. The poor wife was losing her mind by the time I got hoe and I took the little guy and he settled right down. I agree that the two of you can likely set each other off once you both get frustrated and a switch of arms can be just the cure. Don't feel bad, just be happy the little one settles down!

Amanda said...

My experience so far has been that my daughter is fickle in her fancies. She has just had a couple of months as daddy's girl. Crying when he left, only allowing him to read to her, not willing to be comforted by me at all if she had a bad dream or whatever. But now the tide has changed and its all about Mummy again. We've just decided not to take it personally.

Violet said...

martha: you're probably referring to a passage in Baby Love by Robin Barker.

So you're reading about all the trials and tribulations of looking after a young baby and you aren't put off??

rainypete, eb, mtnw: yeah, I do appreciate the fact that at least someone is settling Baby, even if it's not me. Although it would feel even better if I could take some of the credit!