Cross Fit Baby

Here I am again.  Guess I have blogging on the brain.

Sometimes the husband and I joke that baby is training for the cross fit games.  She is BUSY.  Always moving, exploring, climbing, lifting, running.  I just bought some gentle diapers without too much harsh stuff, called Bamboo Nature from Denmark, I think.  The packages are pretty big and she loves to lift them, drag them, climb on them.  She doesn't stop unless she's sleeping.  She was like this as an infant too-- so aware, so observing, never letting me put her in a crib, never letting me rock her (in the rocking chair).  Funny that I bought a crib and rocking chair thinking we'd use them.... (though we do use the rocking chair, just not while holding baby).  She needs to move.  We walk a lot-- I hold her and walk, I hold her and practice my clogging (within reason), I hold her and bounce.  I weigh less now than I did pre-pregnancy.  Probably what I weighed in high school, ot at least my freshman year of college.  It's because my baby needs to constantly be moving.

When she was an infant, I read in "the baby book" by Dr. Sears a list of traits that a "high needs" baby has.  See it here: http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/fussy-baby/high-need-baby/changing-personality-profile-high-need-child-grows  So many of them fit Baby to a T.  Spunky, yep. Alert, yep. Demanding. Busy, strong-willed, energetic, expressive, exhausting.  Yes to them all.  Not all fit though-- she rarely cries, though it's also true I don't "let" her, and she isn't unconsolable.  I can console her real quick with nursing or a visit to see our guinea pig (who lives in the laundry room these days).

On our last date night, I headed off first for acupuncture, then husband and I met at a restaurant.  A little while after finishing our artichoke dip but just before my French dip sandwich arrived, the babysitter called to say Baby had a fever.  I got my order boxed up and headed straight home.  Poor baby was really warm and very sleepy.  We crawled in bed and she nursed and fell asleep immediately.  She slept okay but woke up the next morning at 4 am moaning and very hot.  I was awake enough; I finished reading "Prep" (my second time reading it. I love rereading books) the night before and went to bed early.  We whiled away the early morning hours nursing as well as me holding baby in the folds of my fleece robe and walking, later getting back in bed and trying to go back to sleep (unsuccessful), having tea (me, not baby), eating a bagel with cream cheese, and finally (around 6 or 6:30) snuggling on the couch to watch tv.  Snuggling on the couch is almost unheard of with baby.  Acceptable ways of spending time on the couch for baby  include climbing, reaching for the Christmas light cord that dangles up and slightly to the right of the couch, climbing on any person or pug sitting on the couch, playing under the pillows of said couch. etc.  Also mostly unheard of is baby watching tv.  She watches sports sometimes if her daddy is, but not really cartoons.  I try not to turn the tv on.  But with a sick baby, I'm open to anything and the tv definitely helps.  We watched parts of three shows.  I rated one an A+, one a B and one an F.  The shows were "Noddy", "Noodle Doodle" (I think?  Noodle something.  One sentence was unfortunately very memorable: "Way to use your noodle, Noodle McDoodle!) and Barney.  Guess which show got the F.

On Second Thought

Well, I may not change anything about our nursing and sleeping just yet.  After I started really thinking about making a change, I felt like it was too soon and I didn't want to.  My husband and I have been able to spend more time together thanks to our babysitters, and my back hasn't been hurting.  I'm sleeping on a very soft feather pillow which allows my head to be mostly flat on the bed rather than propped up, but I can fluff up the feathers enough to give my neck some support.

I still plan on asking advice at the next La Leche League meeting I go to.  So far, I've read some good things about Dr. Jay Gordon's approach to gentle night-time weaning.  Maybe sometime in the next few months I may decide to do that.  Or not.  I would rather night wean and continue to co-sleep than stop co-sleeping altogether.  It's just one of my favorite things about having a baby.  She's sleeping beside me now, just wearing a diaper (she got apple juice and zucchini bread all over her outfit at lunch).  She looks so peaceful.

Co-sleeping

I've been thinking a lot about co-sleeping recently and thought I'd write a post about it.  We've been co-sleeping with baby since she was a few days old.  She's never slept in the crib except for a 20 minute nap once.  I love co-sleeping.  After I had her, I'd look at her and couldn't imagine not sleeping by her.  We had a bassinet (borrowed from friends) and she felt so far away from me.  Those first days, I'd put her in it, then wish she was next to me.

Co-sleeping allowed me to sleep.  When I meet people and they ask about sleep-deprivation or if I'm looking forward to getting sleep again someday, I tell them I already get about 8 or 9 hours a night.  I get less, sometimes much less, if she's teething or sick.  But there is nothing like sleeping by a baby.  Their soft little breaths, the little legs curled over mine, the snarfles and moans and squeaks she makes in her sleep.  The tiny hands reaching for some part of me, any part, to hold onto.

It's pretty easy for me to flash  forward to the day when she's 15, or 30, and she'll no longer be sleeping beside me.  Right now is a tiny speck, a flash, a flicker, a swift movement of the hands on the great clock of Time.  It will pass and be gone before I know it.

So as I type, she is curled up beside me and nursing.  She has a cold so her snarfles are louder than usual.  I've been thinking about the possibility of her sleeping in her toddler bed soon, at least when she goes to sleep, and to whisk her into bed after her first night waking.  Co-sleeping is not entirely easy.  It takes a toll-- for me, on the amount of time spent with my husband.  I'm starting to miss him and it feels like something needs to give.  And Baby is not such a tiny, tiny babe anymore.  Those days are gone.  She might do okay, even like, sleeping on her own for a few hours.

And now she's up.  Sitting beside me, rubbing her eyes, stretching, leaning back against the bolster pillow.  It does make me happy to make her happy.