Thursday, August 03, 2006

The internal debate

So lately I have been having a debate with myself. It seems that Gwen now wants to eat constantly all afternoon long. It is more of what we might call grazing, or being lazy. Where she will eat fall asleep and then want to eat soon after. In the beginning I was ok with this because I could catch naps and I really thought she was hungry. Let's face it, after 3p it is hard to listen to her squeal just for no reason, she's not really hungry, has a clean diaper and seems not to have anything bugging her. I don't really get an opportunity to put her down in the afternoon because about 30 minutes (if I am lucky) after I put her down she starts to cry. I am pretty sure she is just overly tired and I would like to be able to soothe her to sleep without having to feed her or be able to lay her down and not have her wake up. I have tried our baby sling, but frankly every time I try it she cries. I don't know if she is just not used to it or she just doesn't like the way she is positioned or if she just doesn't like not being able to see where she is. But my arms hurt from having to hold her constantly. I don't know about you, but I am so not able to sit in one place for 4 hours without having to get up. UGH!
Today was the first day I really tried to make sure we were on more of schedule, not just sitting in one place watching tv, because truly there is really nothing worth watching. I have tried to do my best to keep her awake for her feedings, and only feeding every 1.5-2hours. We only had one real problem spot where she seemed to want to eat for a long time, like she wasn't getting enough. But then by 4:30 I was pretty exhausted and she was crying, but tired, not hungry. I could only pace for so long, I tried to use a pacifier (which only gave short breaks, very hard to pace, pat the back, hold the baby and keep pacifier in mouth simultaneously). But after about a 1/2 hour, actually maybe it was closer to an hour, I couldn't take anymore and let her eat, it was close to time, but she didn't get much sleep. I know in my gut this is the right thing to do, but man is it draining. I am sure eventually I am going to want to leave the house in the afternoon (of course not right now when it is over 100). I am thinking that this tyke is going to be hard to get down for naps and might forgo them altogether.
On the more humorous side of today, when we did tummy time, she was so funny, instead of lifting her head she lifts her legs, kind of reminding me of position we were supposed to be in when I went skydiving. I know she has good head control, not total head control, but we will get there. I know for sure when she was in the swing she was watching the mobile, I saw her eyes following it, I wish I could get a picture of that. Well, Eric's home, dinner's almost ready and he has Gwen and she is not crying! She'll most likely wait until I get my plate of yummy hot food, they have a sixth sense about that, don't they?

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