Friday, May 17, 2013

Bath time and bedtime

Our day with Adalyn is pretty routine at this point. We follow the eat, play, sleep routine, and it seems to work well for us. Recently, Adalyn has not been sleeping very well, her nap times have been cut very short, and she cries hysterically after bath time.


What happened to the babe that loved bath time?

Adalyn did go through some really bad cradle cap, which made bath time much less fun. I think the soap was too strong, and it was drying on her already sensitive scalp. Her skin seems to be pretty sensitive and easy to dry out, so I have stopped using any form of bubble bath. We use Aveeno baby wash on her, but it still does not seem to help.

Even though we have the cradle cap under control, for the most part, she still cries during bath time. We have even stopped using the infant tub and started filling up the whole tub for bath time. One of us will get in the tub with her and help her sit up while she plays with her toys. Adalyn generally likes the part where she gets to play with the toys...She loves chewing on her rubber duckies.

I thought some possible reasons why she might be crying were that she was cold or that she was mad because she did not want to get out of the bathtub. I used to take her out of the bathroom, in her towel, and to her room, where I would put pajamas on her--which is another story: not only is she already upset, but then I try to put clothing on her, which, for some reason, she absolutely hates.

Anyway, so now I steam up the bathroom with the shower prior to bath time, I keep the door closed and have my robe shoved down at the bottom of the door to keep the heat in. I start to drain the tub while we are still in it, so that she doesn't realize as quickly that bath time is over. I turn the shower back on after we get out of the tub, and I get her pajamas on in the bathroom. If she isn't too tired at the end of bath time, I will give her a massage.

Although this has helped a bit, I still seem to have a crabby baby afterward.

**As a side note, I realize that turning on the shower so much is a waste of water, but I figure that because Mom no longer gets to shower as often as she used to, we are using just as much water as we were pre-baby. :) 

And then there is bedtime...


What happened to the babe that loved to sleep?

I did read that at this age, babies are going through a lot more development and are starting to notice everything around them, which makes babies not want to sleep...Who could blame Adalyn? She has a lot of really awesome toys and books!

This week has been especially stressful now that she is no longer sleeping as well because Jon has been working the closing shift almost every night, which leaves Mom to be the lone bedtime enforcer...

Not only does Adalyn not want to go to bed at night, which leads her to cry, and cry, and cry, but she also does not sleep as long as she used to. The idea of "cry it out" has some very mixed feelings by others. I am still on the fence about the idea. Yes, she does need to learn how to fall asleep by herself, but it is so incredibly difficult to listen to her cry so hard and whimper as she falls asleep. :(

Before, Adalyn would generally fall asleep somewhere between 7 and 8 pm--depending on what time she woke up that day, and what time she took her naps during the day. Ugh...and nap time... She used to sleep for 1-2 hours, sometimes even 3 hours. Now her naps tend to run about 30 minutes, with a longer 1-2 hour nap in the morning.

Anyway, so bed time...She would generally sleep from 7 or 8 pm until 1 or 2 am and need to have a feeding. Lately, she has been waking up earlier and earlier. Tonight, she fell asleep a little before 8 pm. It wasn't even 9 pm and she was already crying. Generally, we are able to get Adalyn to fall back asleep (if she isn't hungry) by giving her a pacifier. Now, she will not even take a pacifier and will just cry and cry.

I might add, Adalyn has also recently begun to roll over from her back to her stomach. (Yay for Adalyn, not-so-much-yay for Mom and Dad). When she is upset, she rolls onto her stomach. I have read that it is fine for babies to sleep on their stomachs once they have learned how to roll there on their own. The only problem is that most of the time she gets one arm trapped under her body and cries even more.

Well, my dearest Adalyn, I love you so much, and I would do anything for you. I would even give you the shirt off my back---No, literally. I gave her the shirt off my back tonight, and she feel asleep.

When she woke up after not even having slept an hour tonight, I tried to soothe her while she was in her crib. This did not work whatsoever, so I finally picked her up and rocked her in the glider for a little bit. She immediately snuggled into my chest and fell asleep--the same girl who was hysterically crying a minute ago.

Then, I remembered something I had read...

I was trying to find ideas on how to get Adalyn to fall asleep a few nights ago. There was a woman that had commented that she would put her shirt in with her baby at night because the baby would sleep better having Mom's scent close to him.

Maybe this is the reason why Adalyn fell asleep so quickly in my arms tonight? So, I layed her back in her crib. She, of course, immediately woke up and started to fuss. I pulled off my shirt and laid it on her like a blanket (we have always used blankets with Adalyn--we know that many doctors recommend that you do not do this, but she would never sleep in just a sleep sack. She would only fall asleep with the blanket). Wouldn't you know it, she fell right to sleep.

To be fair, it has only been like a half hour since she fell asleep, but hopefully it works.

Mom=1
Bed time crying=too many to count 

**Update-yeah, that didn't work...ugh. She slept until about 11 pm and was up crying again. Back to the drawing board with this one.

Mom=0
Bed time crying=too many to count + 1  

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