Baby Blues?!

Today I put on "real" clothes for the first time since before Isabel was born. "Real" clothes would be jeans (maternity still, of course) and a shirt that I haven't been able to wear for several months. B & I took Isabel on her first restaurant outing to the Olive Garden. It felt good to eat out - let's be honest....it felt good just to get out of the house.

We've been on 3 walks this week with Isabel, which has been great, so it's not like the Olive Garden was our first venture out. However, it felt like more of a big deal. I packed the diaper bag with extra diapers, wipes, a camera in case she did anything photo-worthy, an extra outfit in case she poo'd or spit up on the one she had on, and a bottle of my breastmilk that I'd pumped a couple days ago in case she got hungry during our meal. All that and she slept the entire time we were out! I'm not sorry we went that prepared though. You never know.

Ok, on to the subject at hand. Baby Blues. I've read a little about it on Babycenter.com. I'm not sure if that's what I have or whether it's really just lack of sleep and frustration when I can't figure out why Isabel is crying! It happens mainly at night. When we were first home, she slept most of the time and only woke up to eat and when we changed her diaper (she hates being naked). She was sleeping 5 to 7 hours a night, which was fantastic! At first she would drop off about midnight or 1 AM, which I could handle (although I prefer going to bed earlier than that). However, her bedtime has steadily been getting later and later this week, and I'm so dang tired by the time 3 AM rolls around that I can barely function. It feels like an un-ending cycle, and I have not yet figured out the key to stopping it. I nurse her, which makes her poo. I change her (not wanting to leave her marinating in her mustard-like poo), which wakes her up (if she fell asleep during the feeding, which is common) since she HATES being naked or even half-naked. She also hates the feeling of cold wipes on her bottom. So most of the time, changing her diaper makes her scream-cry, which makes me cry...especially after 1 AM! She keeps scream-crying, and that is doubly frustrating as I've just fed her and changed her diaper! I start crying because I cannot figure out what is making her cry. I'm pretty sure we're both just really tired, but good lord, why won't she just go to sleep!?!?

I've tried swaddling although I have to admit that I suck at swaddling. The nurses at the hospital are expert swaddlers, but I just could not get the hang of whipping that blanket around my baby girl. When I try to do it, she just screams and flails her limbs in all directions. Have you ever tried to swaddle a flailing baby?! Impossible. I need at least 3 or 4 more hands to corral those flailing limbs. We also have the Swaddler (a cloth with velcro at strategic points), but it is too big for her and she can kick partially out of it. Stoobid thing might work in a few months but doesn't really work as a straight-jacket right now.

I've also watched the video, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. I don't know. It might work on other babies, but the 5 S's don't seem to work on Isabel! 1) Swaddle - umm, nope. Can't do it and she seems to hate it anyway. 2) Side/Stomach position - this is holding the swaddled baby on her side sorta like a football. I tried this last night and Isabel just screamed. 3) Shushing! A loud shush in the baby's ear. Sometimes it quiets her down, but other times it doesn't. 4) Swinging. Dr. Karp wants you to jiggle the baby with very tiny movements while supporting her neck - sort of small "shiver-like" motions, he says. Huh. Again, that didn't seem to work at all for Isabel. The video was very clear though about never shaking your baby! 5) Sucking - on the breast or a clean finger. Hmm, well....Isabel does like this one....she prefers the boob of course, since there's something in it for her. ;)

Dr. Karp says that if you want your baby to sleep 1 - 3 hours longer per night, you should use the swaddling and play white noise all night, and that should do it. When I first tried to watch this DVD, I was so tired that I didn't realize that what I was putting in the DVD player was the white noise CD instead of the DVD - acckk!!! I thought I was breaking the DVD player until Bryan very helpfully pointed out that it was a CD I was trying to watch. ;) The first white noise track sounded like a vacuum cleaner, which doesn't seem very relaxing to me, but what do I know? Anyway, you can see why I thought I was breaking the DVD player with a vacuum cleaner noise coming out of it. ;)

I ordered a CD of lullabies from Amazon the other day and it arrived yesterday. I thought it might help, and when I first put it on, Isabel blinked and seemed to listen to the music (Celtic Dreamland by Putumayo). However, that was short-lived and she apparently ignored it the rest of the night. sighhhh.

I need sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bryan offered to watch Isabel yesterday so that I could nap during the day, which was great, but when I lay down, I just could not drop off!! I was so frustrated because I knew I was tired enough to sleep for a couple of hours, but I just couldn't do it.

I need to figure out the secret to helping my baby girl go to bed earlier than 3 AM!!!!! Anyone? Anyone?! I sent an email to my prenatal yoga instructor who has 2 kids, so we'll see if she has any helpful nuggets of information for me. Meanwhile, I dread night time with my little one.