Sleepless nights and Frustrating days

The last few days have been hard hard days and nights. E has been a fussy, crying, needy and moody baby. Sure, she has her super happy moments... will play with us... and will even sit quietly in her BeBe Pod while we catch a bite to eat. But beware of the "turning"... where she becomes the inconsolable crying babe. No diaper change, no nursing, no rocking or toy will do. Actually diaper changes turn into wrestling matches (see below, her new "stomp" move), nursing becomes a teething chew time (ouch) and rocking becomes a power struggle. Add on the fact that she is pooping nonstop and with new larger diaper covers (she outgrew the last size) that means she is leaking everywhere (on to the couch, the bed, her clothes, our clothes, etc).

It all started last week when she woke up in the middle of the night at around 4 am and wouldn't go back to bed till her next feeding (that's about 2 hours). For some reason, she just wasn't sleepy and was hyper alert so even after Ian faithfully rocked her to slumber, she instantly awoke with a vengeance as she was put down in her bassinet. After several tries at this, we let her stay awake and then put her to bed at her next feeding. This has happened before, but it usually rectifies itself in a day or two. This time it didn't.

Then on Thursday she had her "4 month" set of shots. This gave her a mild fever and increased her hyper alertness and overall crankiness. We totally understood her poor mood and we consoled her as much as possible. The weather also started to get warmer... so she was just uncomfortable all the time. Poor baby. We still weren't so sleep deprived to not be frustrated long.

Then on Saturday night we had daylight savings time. Although it seems that babies shouldn't be cognisant enough to notice something as simple as daylight savings time, people swear that it throws off their babies already fickle sleep cycles. I don't know if it's true, but I won't discount it at this point.

And lastly, to top it off, E has discovered the strength of her legs. She was always a strong legged infant, pushing up to stand on us at 2 weeks old and pushing off anything she could get her feat on. BUT now she uses her legs to project herself "forward" (whichever way her head is pointed) while on her back... and uses her legs to roll herself from side to side (along with some 80s dance move with her head, even though she still can't turn completely over at will either way)... and uses her legs to forcefully "stomp" while lying on her back (meaning she'll lift her legs up so her feet are pointing towards the ceiling and then throw her legs down while arching her back, so her feet land on the floor/bottom of the bassinet/whatever surface she is on. This also can propel her "forward" several inches.) During the day (and not on the changing table when you're trying to get a diaper on her after an already frustrating day) this is very very cute and admirable (because it means she is growing and learning to be mobile, albeit all from a back lying position). Sometimes we actually just watch her and laugh. Though at night it's not welcome, especially after you've only gotten 6 hours of sleep for multiple days in a row.

And so, a week later, E is still getting up in the middle of the night... completely awake... refusing to sleep or worse, being very tired and still refusing to sleep. This has made for a very tired Mommy and Daddy (who was late for class today as he woke up really late)... and also a very short fused Mommy during the day. (SAHM know what I'm talking about - the times when you want to just leave your baby to cry in the crib so you can regain some sanity... or when you can't get your precious infant to stop fussing/crying and you've reached the point that it is making you simply mad - all to quickly melt away to being very protective and wanting again to make your dear babies tears disappear) To add to the sleepless nights is the overall frustrating days. It's not all day.. but one or two episodes of "crying because I'm tired but refusing to sleep" or "crying because I want to be held and entertained" even though I may already be holding and entertaining her... can sap all energy and desire to care for her. It's the "turning", from cute darling baby to crazed monster infant. How can she have so much crying fussiness energy!

P.S. OK.. I also want to add a disclaimer (although I think even without, this last week would still be remembered as being quite a hard week in the life of mommy- and daddy- hood) - I think I might be coming down with a cold or at least some allergies. I don't usually have any allergies... but sometimes when tired or sick I get more sensitive to stuff. Not to mention, everyone says living in Davis, even previously non-allergy prone people develop allergies. Sigh. Lately I've had a earache, my throat is often irritated, I've been sneezing and have a runny nose... all only on one side. So this could probably add to my poor mood. What a bad combination, poor condition mommy coupled with currently needy baby.