Baby Em has a very particular day schedule. It's not one that this Mommy likes very much but I'm working through it (and so is her Nanny). I feel like it's worse on the weekends but maybe the Nanny can tolerate it more than I can and so she doesn't think Baby Em is that fussy.
Anyways, Baby Em usually starts her day around 9am (I'm not counting the other couple of times she wakes up for feeding in the wee hours of the morning). At this time she feeds, usually for about 15 minutes. Then it's play time which lasts between 30 to 45 minutes. Then it's nap time but nap time is never easy. As soon as she has been awake for 45 minutes to an hour she gets really fussy, will fight with you and eventually falls asleep--in your arms. Once I have her to sleep she must stay there because as soon as I try to put her down to go to sleep she immediately wakes up. Now a lot of people will tell me that I must have coddled her from birth and that is why she can't get to sleep anywhere but in someones arms. However, this is not the case, I was very good about getting her to sleep in her bassinet, in her swing and her bouncy seat. This is just something that has started in the last month--somewhere around 11 weeks. So once she is asleep she stays asleep for 40 to 50 minutes and the whole thing starts all over again and repeats itself until bedtime which is around 8:30.
I recently posted my story on a baby blog site and got some great advice which I hope to try next week. The first thing I'll be trying is upping Baby Em's breast milk intake. Currently she is eating 4 oz every two hours or so. I'm going to try to up her feedings to 5 oz. We'll see how it goes. It could just mean a lot more spit up but if she does take it maybe she'll feel more satisfied and go longer between feedings. I can't start earlier because I don't have a great breast milk supply and so I'm hoping this weekend to add in a couple of extra pumping sessions to help increase that. Hopefully this will work.
Otherwise the second thing I'll try is putting Baby Em to bed sooner. Unfortunately for my husband and I this will mean less time with Baby Em when we come home from work but if it means a happier baby I'm willing to try it. We will just have to make up for it on the weekends.
I'm also looking into different carriers that I could use. This way if I do have to have her close in order for her to fall asleep maybe this will work and I'll still have my hands free. We've been experimenting with different Moby holds. I also like the Kozy carrier, a type of Mei Tai baby carrier. This weekend the little family is going to a baby wearing workshop to try different things out.
Funny thing about Baby Em and her schedule, this past weekend we had some friends over on Sunday to watch the World Cup match. I figured I would probably being spending most of my time in Baby Em's room trying to calm her down. However, it ended up being a very good day for Baby Em and she only fussed once but was easy to get calm again. I guess Baby Em understands the meaning of guests and was on her best behavior. If only she understood the meaning of "driving me crazy" and she would be on her best behavior for Mommy.
I love my little girl.
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