A Helpless Moment

Today is Saturday and we had plans to go to Blessings to pick up some Veggietales CDs for Gemma. Unfortunately, the closest Christian bookstore to us is nearly an hour away. Anyways, Gemma woke up from her morning nap, ate a breakfast of cereal and egg yolk (which she has had before and had no issues with) and nursed about 20 minutes after she ate. We got ready to go and my mom was holding her when Gemma spat up - a little on herself, but mostly on mom and her new Coach purse... Mom went and changed and I put Gemma in her car seat. She spat up again... We had just driven out of the neighborhood and down the road when she spat up some more. At this point, we were getting concerned because the amount was increasing each time. The road we were going to take was closed due to a parade today, so we had to turn around and detour around town to get where we were going. Gemma quickly fell asleep and we thought she was feeling a bit better. 

Then she threw up all over herself. I'd say there was about a cup or more of throwup. We pulled into a park and got her out and while Jesse was holding her, she was heaving and continuing to throw up. There was so much liquid. There was a huge pool of it in her car seat. Of course we just came straight home. I took her upstairs to bathe her and change her when she threw up even more. Poor baby was just exhausted from all the vomiting and she could hardly keep her eyes open. I quickly washed her and put her in a new sleeper, and held her for a bit. She was so tired and could barely lift her head. I swaddled her and as soon as I did, she was out like a light. I hovered over her for a few minutes to make sure she was okay and left the room door open. We all took turns checking on her every 5 minutes. She slept for almost 2 hours and woke up mostly like her old self, but tired.

This is the first time Gemma has ever been sick. I have never felt so helpless in my life, watching her be so sick with nothing that I could do... I think it must be the worst feeling in the world...

Sootherless Day & Night #1

Okay. So Gemma was napping (with her soother) when I wrote my last post. Once she woke up, we went to Wal-Mart. Usually I give her the soother in the car to keep her from crying (though it doesn't always work). Well, she didn't have one and she did fine. Even at Wal-Mart, she sat in the shopping cart, curiously looking around and trying to snatch my shopping list from my hands. On the way home, she did good too. 

So when the time came for her nap, I put her in her sleep sack and tried to do the usual ritual (sleep sack, cuddle, some kisses, and down on the crib). She didn't want to be cuddled AT ALL. She just kept crying and squirming. She soon began screaming. So whatever, I put her down anyway. I stroked her hair for a few seconds and left. Screaming, screaming, and screaming. Three minutes later I went in and stroked her hair again. Screaming continued. Five minutes after that, I went in and stroked her hair. Screaming continued. Ten minutes after that, I went in and stroked her hair. She turned her head to the side and became quiet. When I turned my back to leave, she started to cry. So I turned back and looked at her and she had her eyes wide open, batting at her ocean aquarium. I turned the music on, but left the light and bubbles off. She squealed and looked at the aquarium. I left, thinking "whatever, she can play if that's what she wants to do". After she was quiet for about 20 minutes, I went in to check and she was passed out. She slept and hour and a half. Woohoo!

At her next nap, I just turned on the aquarium and left. She made a few wails, but then just stopped and slept. When Jesse got home, Reggie barked and so she woke up, but I didn't go in. She was quickly quiet again and went back to sleep. Another hour and a half.

Bedtime came and I was nervous. I planned to go to sleep as soon as she did so I could catch some extra Z's if this was gonna be a hard night. At about 7:30, I put her down. She screamed for about 5 minutes or so and when I went and stroked her hair, she turned her head to the side and went to sleep. She woke up this morning at 6:30 and I didn't hear a peep out of her until then. I kept on waking up though and looking at the clock, being amazed each time that she hadn't woken up.

So day & night #1 was a success!

Bye Bye Soother!

First of all, we had a terrific night last night. I know this sounds odd with us trying to take the soother away and all, but two nurses had told me what they did for their children when it came to them crying out for soothers in the middle of the night: they put five or six of them in the crib so one was always within reach for the baby. 

Well, just for the heck of it, we tried it last night. We didn't hear a peep from her from 8 PM until 6:30 AM. Not a single peep. 

It's lovely and all, but I think our decision is still to take it away. Last night was just an experiment. 

So apparently 3 days is the rule when training babies. It takes 3 days to sleep train, 3 days to potty train, etc. Today conveniently happens to be Friday, which means it's the perfect day to start this as we will probably lose a lot of sleep in the next 3 days. This is what we're gonna do: take the soother away cold turkey. 

Six months is a perfect time to take it away as they no longer NEED to suck and are not as strongly attached as they could be at a year old or so. I think Gemma is already quite attached to it, so it might prove to be more difficult, but I think (and hope!) that we can pull this off. Luckily she gave us a great night's sleep last night to start this feeling refreshed.

I shall keep you posted. If not, it's because she isn't sleeping at all and I don't have the time to be on here blogging anymore. Again, wish us luck!

Sleep Class

1. Times like these, I am thankful for this town and all its helpful (and free!) resources. 

2. I went into it thinking I won't learn anything new... just wanted to tell myself I was doing it all right. Boy, was I wrong.

3. There will be some challenging and sleepless nights coming up...LOL.

This class was offered before, but I didn't go because I didn't think I needed to. Gemma was a terrific sleeper from the beginning, though we did have some issues with napping when she was 5-7 weeks old. Once I got her into a routine, however, she began napping and sleeping very well. I can put her down drowsy and she falls asleep on her own. If she wakes at night, we only need to put her soother back in and she goes right back to sleep. She doesn't eat during the night and she doesn't fuss or wake up wanting to play (except for last night, lol).

I was mainly curious on how to get her to stop rolling over and how to take away her soother.

HOW TO GET HER TO STOP ROLLING OVER:

Well, apparently she can roll over if she wants. I get frustrated because for some reason she has forgotten how to roll from her belly on to her back and she cries out. Either Jesse or I go in there and turn her over on to her back. Kim's (the instructor) advice: STOP ROLLING HER BACK. Help her practice during the day rolling over front to back again. Even if she cries at night because she can't get back on her back, let her figure it out. don't turn her over. (of course, make sure she is safe and not stuck in some weird way or something)

HOW TO TAKE AWAY THE SOOTHER:

Babies have sleep associations that help them sleep: a lovey, a soother, a rocking motion or bounce, a lullaby, white noise, a repetitive sound, etc. Gemma is addicted to her soother for sleep. When we are at home, that is the only time she gets her soother and so she associates her soother to sleep. I don't need to rock her, I don't need to sing to her, I don't need to hush her. All I do is put her into her sleep sack, hold her in a "cradle" position, and put her soother in. Then I give her a quick kiss on the forehead and put her down. She is off to la-la-land. Easy Peasy.

Until she wakes up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep because the soother is no longer in her mouth. Weirdly enough, she spits it out when she wants to actually sleep. She just seems to need it to help her get there. So she will whine or cry out and Jesse goes and puts her soother back in. She then turns her head to the side and back off to la-la-land.

Most nights this is only once or twice at most. But there are some nights when she cries out four or five times. So you can imagine poor Jesse can't get a good night's sleep when he has to constantly go in there (I don't get up during the night because Gemma will not go right back to sleep if she sees me).

Kim's advice was to change her sleep association from the soother to something else - something that Gemma can do herself. Gemma likes having her hair stroked, so I am gonna try to teach her to stroke her own head to help her fall asleep. This isn't going to be easy as I think she needs something to SUCK, but I don't think I can get her to suck her hand without her isolating her thumb somehow. 

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So what is the big deal with getting up a couple times a night to stick her soother back in? Well actually Jesse doesn't mind at all (or so he says), but I have a feeling it will be easier to take it away now at 6 months rather than at a year. 

Anyways, wish us luck. 

Here are some other interesting tidbits of information:

• The first morning nap is crucial for brain development. The afternoon nap is essential for rest and rejuvenation, stress relief.
• Nighttime sleep does not make up for lost naps. Babies NEED to nap.
• Babies 6 months old (and under) should only be awake for 1.5 hours to 2 hours at a time. 
• A baby's sleep cycle is 20 minutes long, while an adult's is 90. 
• A baby falls asleep in REM, an adult falls asleep in non-REM, which is why babies awake so easily soon after they've fallen asleep.
• A new developmental milestone is one of the causes of sleep disruption, as well as growth spurt, teething, travel, illness. These developmental milestones include making strange.

where is my sleeping beauty?

That was the worst night since Gemma was born. She went down for the night at about 8, her usual time, without giving me any grief. Then at 1 AM, she woke up and when Jesse went to put her soother in her mouth, she kept on crying and crying instead of going back right to sleep. So then I went in, stroked her hair a bit, and she quietened down. But when I tried to leave, she started crying again. After a few more rounds of hair stroking and trying to leave, I picked her up and changed her diaper, which felt very full. We had put on Pampers Cruisers on her before bed because we thought we had run out of Swaddlers and I wondered if that was bothering her. After changing her diaper, she quietened down and went back to bed. 

An hour later, she woke up crying again. This time when I went in, she was fully awake and when she saw me, she just wanted to play. I told her it was time to sleep, not play, and left the room. She cried and cried and cried and several times I went in to put her soother back in her mouth. Well after what seemed like forever (though probably only 30 minutes), she quietened down. Another hour later, same thing. I let her cry and went in after awhile to put her soother in.

I didn't think about it at first, but in retrospect I think she was hungry. She hadn't pooped in 2 days (which was a first) and so I only gave her solids once yesterday. But then she had two small poops during the day and a huge poop in the evening before her bath, so maybe she needed to catch up on her calories. The fact that she may be hungry didn't even cross my mind during the night, as she hasn't done that since she was 8 weeks old.

Anyways, hopefully that was a one-time thing. Interestingly, we are headed to a sleep class today... maybe I will learn something new.

Dedication

Gemma is over 6 months old now and even before she was born, Jesse and I talked about whether or not we should have her dedicated and still haven't come to a decision. 

Initially, it was a No. The idea of standing in front of hundreds of strangers and them "agreeing" to help us raise our kids in a Godly manner seemed odd. 

Then, my mom's pastor (who is reformed presbyterian) suggested we get her baptized and gave us a lot of information on why we should. After much thought Jesse and I decided maybe we would do that, but my mom's pastor didn't want to do it. He wanted us to find our own reformed presbyterian church and get her baptized there. ... ..... so we went around searching for a reformed presbyterian church to call home... but eventually we came back to our alliance church, which we like very much. and of course at the alliance church, they don't do infant baptism. 

So back to a dedication. Should we do it or not? Neither Jesse nor I have strong opinions on this and would love to hear from YOU. Perhaps we don't know enough about a dedication to make a decision. Can you help us?

"Crawling"

Gemma has been doing this for awhile now - sometimes she is REALLY good and fast, sometimes she seems to "forget" and gets more frustrated trying to move forward. This one is kinda in between...

Enjoy!

Earwax

here's an interesting tidbit of information for you:

Asian people have powdery earwax. Caucasians have gooey earwax.

Jesse's genes have won the battle of the earwax in Gemma. She has gooey earwax.

Don't Look At ME!!

Compared to what i could have possibly imagined before Gemma was born, I think i'm really getting myself out there, meeting people, talking to people, getting to know people, etc. We go to Baby & Me every Tuesday, Rhythm & Rhyme every Thursday, Wednesdays we usually hang out in the city with my mom, Mondays and Fridays I usually see a friend or have a walk-date with another mom, etc. That, plus we spend the weekends going out into Calgary or Edmonton and seeing people...

...and yet, Gemma makes strange TERRIBLY. I was hoping all this exposure to people would eliminate this or bring it down a notch, but it seems to be getting worse with time. She can't even handle people making eye contact with her - though she always looks at them first and then starts to cry if they look back at her. Don't even think about holding her unless you want your eardrums to shred into pieces from her screaming into them. 

Any suggestions? Is it a personality thing or do all babies do this? I don't hear about it being a problem from other moms... Will she grow out of it? or will she be the kid always hiding behind my legs when we meet someone new?

the other blog

yes, there is another. 

gkonnert.blogspot.com

Not nearly as cute as this one as it is not really Gemma-related. But if you're bored... go check it out.