Saturday, June 28, 2008

Typical day # 2

  • Little Planet's last feed was at 9.30pm the previous night. She awakes at 1am for a feed and then falls asleep.

  • She awakes at 4am and M feeds her. She's asleep by 4.30am.

  • She wakes for a feed at 7am and we play with her a little on the changing mat. She's asleep by 8am.

  • She's awake by 10.30am for a feed and I play with her a little on the changing mat. She's asleep by 11.30am.

  • She's awake at 1pm but cannot sleep even though she wants to and can't stop crying as she has a griping pain. In between bouts of crying, we play under the Baby Einstein activity gym and this distracts her from her discomfort for an hour.

  • She starts her painful crying again. She has another feed. I take her out in the buggy. This usually calms her, but not today. She cries on and off for the 30 minute trip to and around and back from the park, and when I return home I am so stressed that I call M and ask him to look up the cost of hiring a part-time nanny. I tell him I give up, that I do not have the patience, stamina, or good heart to look after a newborn.

  • Alone with a crying Little P in my arms, I cry too - not just because I cannot cope, but because I can't alleviate whatever pain or discomfort she is suffering from. Rationally, I know this will pass - that around 10-12 weeks her digestive system will mature and the crying will stop. But I think to myself, Can I cope for another few months of this?

  • I email my antenatal friends - all professional women - who say they too wish they could be back at work.

  • 5pm I give her a feed. She sleeps for an hour in my arms as I watch my new TV addiction the Gilmore Girls. I look down at her perfect face and body, now momentarily calm, and cry again because I love her so intensely and want only for her to be happy and comfortable.

  • M returns home early and feeds her at 7pm. He tries to rock her to sleep and it takes a while but she sleeps a little as we eat dinner - he made pasta with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, black olives, feta and home-grown thyme. I glug down my wine. Every inch of my body is aching from rocking and carrying and soothing her all day.

  • But by 10pm, she is still crying. M has taken over for the night so I can sleep. He is a star as his working days are always intense and he will have to work all day on Sunday. He finally gets her to sleep after midnight.

  • Today is Saturday. Every inch of my body is still aching and I have a headache. M is jogging round the park and then will pick up breakfast. Little P is asleep in her rocking cradle as I type this. If all things go well - if she doesn't cry relentlessly - then the three of us will go shopping and stroll around the park. Then I will head off into town alone to catch a movie (hopefully Sex And The City) and do some shopping in Soho and generally relax as M looks after our baby for the day. I will miss her intensely but I am so looking forward to my "day off".
Our little baby is 3 weeks old today. Here is one of our magical moments from yesterday, despite the drama.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think, this is exactly how I would feel with an infant to look after!

~nm said...

She is looking so adorable.

Taking care of an infant for the first 5-6 months is quite tough. So I can only say "hold on" and it will be fine soon!

Premalatha said...

PH,
infacol befor every feed and/or gripe water after feed or whenever baby has griping pain worked for me. infacol doesn't give immediate resukts but will have lasting results. gripe water showed immediate results. secondly, let the baby cry. it is good and needed for her development.
it is good that you are not breastfeeding. otherwise the stress would have been too much.
another good thing is, bottle fed babies fall into a routine quite soon. also they sleep through night quite soon. she will start sleeping through longer stretches during the night after four weeks.
during the day, find out a music she responds to. play that whenever she cries. it might help. noisy tv helps too.

How is your health? How do you feel around the stitches? don't strain yoursel too much.

Anonymous said...

Hang in there PH, it does get better

Priyanka said...

Hey, I have the exact same play gym for Aashna :) Looking after an infant can be really exhausting, esp. when they cry and don't want to sleep. Aashna coughed a bit today morning at 5 AM and I'm unable to sleep since then worrying about what might be wrong :( 'Mommy worries' are so stressful.

Priyanka said...

Btw, Aashna was gassy too. Our Doc recommended - 'Ridwind', it works great! I also give her gripe water. Ridwind makes her fart a lot and she isn't in pain anymore.

Anonymous said...

It will get better! I've talking to friends with babies recently about how none of us actually had any idea what we were doing in those first few weeks. Everything is infinitely easier with a couple of months of experience (we didn't learn quickly in this case :). Although I have to say I disagree with premalatha; crying isn't good for the baby's development. Being comforted is. Oh! I have a trick after all - try using the hairdryer on her belly (at a distance of course). both the sound and the heat helps. Our doctor friends gave us this tip so it's doctor approved. Hope you enjoyed your day out!

Anonymous said...

Such wonderful tips - this is why I have a blog! Thank you. We've been using Infacol for a couple of weeks now and have already seen improvements though I haven't used gripe water yet. Ridwind sounds interesting - I will look it up. I love love love the hairdryer on tummy tip. I use the hairdryer sound to calm her down but will try it aimed on her tummy now (at a distance of course!).

And welcome back Broom, I've missed you!

Premalatha said...

Hi Anja,

I didn't notice your comment until today.
I didn't mean let it cry without comforting is good. I meant that if the baby cries do not worry too much. that is all.

Premalatha said...

ah, i just missed to mention, when I said it is needed for the normal development.. sometimes babies simply cry nor no reason. I am told that it is for their lung development. that is what I meant