Last night was hell!

Teething sucks.

MJ has the lung power of an opera star should she choose to be one.

Wonder Week my a$$

Not a day after I told a friend that I hadn't had to get up in the middle of the night last night happened. Morgan is working on 6 months now and I think we are hitting a Wonder Week. She was up and HUNGRY at 11, at 1, at 4 and again at 6. We finally got out of bed for the day at 7:15 when she had her breakfast, about a tablespoon more cereal than she usually has, and she was still hungry.

Of course, mind you, her first tooth is still trying to make an appearance and that has her all on edge too. She has been incredibly fussy and clingy in the afternoons after her naps. Ah yes, and this week the napping routine has changed as well. Last week we were on a steady diet of 2 two hour naps a day. As of this week we are back to 3 or 4 half hour to forty five minute naps.

Here, for your edification, is a brief description of the side effects of the so-called Wonder Weeks:

[S]he may cry more, be more fussy and need more comforting. check.
Some of the babies lose their appetites. Oh no, not Morgan. She is a Cable after all.
Some babies who have been sleeping well may take more time to go off to sleep and wake more often. double check
Some young children who have been happily exploring their world may become more clingy, and become upset much more easily. check. "Don't you dare put me down, Mamma, or I'll scream."
They may show an increased need for body contact with their mothers. see above comment.

So, what I'd really like to know is: Who is the sadist who decided to call these difficult, fussy, wakeful and clingy weeks wonderful?

A full time job

Being a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) is a full time job. Actually, it's more than full time since your day does not begin at 9 am and certainly does not end at 5. This is a job that knows no time restraints. (As has been requested I will soon post up an outline of a "typical" day, although in all honesty such a thing does not truly exist.) These last few months staying at home with Morgan has made me appreciate and admire mothers everywhere.

(Sorry for all the crap I gave you when I was younger, Mom!)

When Jim and I first discussed getting pregnant and having a baby we agreed that I would stay home and take care of him/her. I had all the time in the world to come to this conclusion since it took us over a year to get pregnant. I knew that as much as I loved working on my degree and as much as I loved teaching, I was not going to be happy if I left my baby to someone else to mind for the day, even if that someone else was her father. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for working moms too, I just didn't think it would work for me. I debated for awhile, before Miss MJ was born, about finding a job teaching online courses. I even went so far as to apply for a position or two. That was before November. That was when I still thought that babies slept for large portions off the day and I'd have time to do work and take care of her. My Munchkin's arrival into this world changed all that.

If you have read any of my previous posts you will realize that MJ does not like to sleep. From the day after her birth everyone who saw her said, “Wow, she's so alert!” Little did I know then that what those words in fact meant were, “My god, you're going to have your hands full!” Morgan seems convinced that if she sleeps, even for a mere ten minutes, in the middle of the day she will miss out on something important so she does her damnedest to stay awake, at all costs... to both her and me. I laugh now when I think back on the naivete' that led me to believe that I could work at home and dedicate as much time to MJ as is required or desired by either of us.

Mothering is a full time job. full stop.

2 outta 3 ain't bad, right?

Well, she slept through the night. Mostly. She went down at 8 pm and didn't really wake up again until 8 am. Sounds heavenly. Well, only one downfall. She was complaining in her sleep every hour to half an hour. Now, I'm pretty sure that the complaints were because of a wet diaper, but I'm a chicken shit and I refused to go in and change it. I mean, after the night before I was a little gun shy about waking her up. I figured that if the diaper wasn't going to wake her, who the hell was I to poke the bear.

Well, that would have been all well and good if it hadn't been for the fact that my dear dear husband was snoring louder than a jet engine last night. So between the two of them I got next to no sleep. But, hey, they did.

2 outta 3 ain't bad, right?

My own personal horn section.

For whatever reason Miss MJ had some serious tummy issues last night. She was up continuously between 2 am and 6 am. I have never heard such incredible gastric noises! I swear she could have been her very own marching band this morning. At one point she farted for about 5 minutes straight. Wynton Marsalis would have been proud. Anyway, after much crying and a few vials of gripe water she passed out on me at about 6 am while I was bouncing up a storm on the exercise ball.

Here's to hoping her tummy is better today and she takes a long nap. (HA!) I seriously need some sleep.

I have this reoccuring fantasy.

In it I put a sleepy Morgan down in her crib or on my bed and she shuffles around or fusses a bit and then falls asleep. I do not spend an hour bouncing her on an exercise ball only to have to wake up screaming 5 minutes later. I do not have to feed her into a coma guaranteeing later tummy trouble because she passed out before I could burp her. I do not have to feel guilty and inadequate because it is incredibly apparent to everyone around me that my red eyed child who keeps rubbing her face and whining is exhausted and I have not let her nap.

It's a small dream. Please tell me it will happen eventually.

4 month sleep regression.

Well it would be a stretch to say that Morgan's sleep has been following a linear pattern since she was born but I've come across a phrase in the past few weeks that would imply that was the case. The infamous "4 month sleep regression". What I take this to mean is that MJ is totally normal in the fact that she won't sleep for more than an hour or so at a time and that she just simply won't nap during the day. So far the only thing that has worked for us is to pull her into bed with me and hold her tightly, one hand behind the head, one hand under the butt. Unfortunately she still wakes up screaming every 20 minutes or so.

The reading I've been doing suggests that this is because she is making some big cognitive leaps these past few weeks and, admittedly, that is a good thing. Lack of sleep for everyone in the house (even the cats have a hard time sleeping through Miss Morgan's sleep-screaming fits) is most decidedly *not* a good thing.

Here's to hoping that the "regression" comes to a head quickly and she is able to sleep for longer stretches again. this sleep deprivation is making my normally happy little girl into the bear we feared she might be.

Scorpio baby

I just recently stumbled across this description while I was playing curious mom (kind of like trying to read the last page of a book first) and get an idea of my child's future in advance. I'm floored by the accuracy of these statements:

When a Scorpio baby enters the world, all eyes will focus on them. And that's exactly how it will be for a long time to come, as this baby must be the center of attention! To that end, this is quite the manipulative little tot, sucking up energy from everyone around. The Scorpio baby is also a bit mysterious, making it hard to figure out what's wrong when the crying starts. So often, it's something which is seething below the surface and will be very hard to draw out of this child. You must also consider power struggles when thinking of this child, as the Scorpio baby will expect that Mom, Dad, and everyone else will fit into their schedule and plans. Make no mistake, this is a powerful child! The flip side of this is that this baby is quite clear on what they want and can get that message across. One important note: Scorpio babes loathe lounging in dirty diapers, so change them often! Many times, this can be the simple source of their discomfort, although the malady may not always be so clear. For that reason, the Scorpio baby should be watched closely. Someone will generally be watching this child, though, as the Scorpio tot enjoys a crowd, especially one where it can lead. To sum up, the Scorpio baby is clever, wants things on their own terms, and will know how to get it. Watch out!

addendum

Not only did Murphy kick me in the ass, but I think he lost a shoe.

She woke up literally the moment I hit the "publish" button. You'd think I'd learn my lesson.

Notes from teething hell...

I've known that Morgan has begun teething for quite some time now. She has been a drooling champ and nothing makes her quite as happy as having a cloth rub her gums. Everything she encounters goes into her mouth these days. Little did I know that this was only the beginning.

This past week has been a new experience in teething hell and I'm assured it will only get worse. Since she has been so uncomfortable of late, Morgan has been exceedingly clingy. She will fuss and fuss unless I am holding her *all* the time. Most of the times no one else will do. She refuses to nap in the day time unless I'm holding her, which I assure you makes posting (and doing anything else, for that matter) rather complicated. Multitasking while holding a sleeping infant is not as easy as it sounds. Ah well, so much for housekeeping.

I thought at first that her inability to nap alone might have been related to the NSS plan, but my dear girl sleeps just fine unswaddled throughout the night. She has also developed a bit of a cough, which I am convinced has its origins in the excessive drool she inhales while lying down.

Poor thing has been rather needy the past week and it has worn me out, through and through.

However, on the lighter side of things, I got her a new bathtub last week so that she could have more fun playing while bathing. She loves the water and here is my favorite picture to prove it.
Here she is kicking and splashing in the water and generally having a good time. :)

by special request

Morgan's honorary Auntie Helen has specifically requested a photo of Miss Morgan with the blanket H.A.H. made for her. I'm glad to accommodate. :)

In this photo Morgan is sporting her "drama queen" onesie, which for the day it was taken was quite appropriate as she screamed for a half an hour in the car on the way to our destination. Of course, she was all smiles as soon as she was out of that car seat (read: torture chair).

I hate gardeners

I never really had strong feelings about gardening and gardeners in general until I had a baby. No, let me rephrase that: I never had strong feelings about gardeners until I had a baby who hates to nap and wakes up each time the freaking gardeners feel the need to trim the same hedge outside her bedroom window for the better part of an hour while I'm trying to get her down for a nap unsuccessfully because the hedge upon which they are working keeps shooting shrapnel at her window startling her awake making her cry.

As I have mentioned in the past Miss Morgan is not a big fan of nap time. However, I'm a not a big fan of Miss Morgan sans nap time. And for some reason it seems that every neighbor on our street has his or her gardener come on a different day and a different time... of course that day and time always coincides with Morgan's attempts at naps. It seems that there is forever a gas powered mower (that's another rant for another time) screeching outside, or the ear splitting hum of that ever pointless power tool, the leaf blower.

Ahhh, the attack of the edger. It has woken the sleeping beauty... yet again.

She HATES the car!

For the first 2 or 2 1/2 months of her life I was convinced that Miss Morgan was going to be a world traveler. She loved being in the car. The moment you put her in her seat she would happily kick around and when she learned to make happy baby noises she cooed until she fell asleep. Well, those days are over.

Of late my charming daughter has started rehearsing for her operatic career whenever she gets put into her car seat. Wow, does she ever have the lung power. She hits notes I didn't even know existed. The real drawback to this (aside from the torment involved for both of us with the car screaming trick) is that Morgan will scream herself into a state of exhaustion and inevitably pass out 5 minutes before we reach our destination. Now, this is a problem because if she falls asleep in the car she will wake up the moment she is taken out of the car and once she's awake she simply WILL NOT go down for a nap again, even if her previous nap was only 5 minutes in length. She is just sure that if she fell asleep she has done her job even if she did not get enough rest.

If sleep is for the weak, my girl is signing up for the World's Strongest Baby competition.