Life Happens

I am not a baby person.  Sure, they are adorable and all that, but they cry too much and poop too much and don't cooperate with too much.  I think part of my attitude comes from the fact that out of all my children, only one has been an ideal baby.  Only one slept sweetly in her car seat like other people's infants.  Only one of my babies slept well at night and didn't cry incessantly.  Only she was never colicky, never cried for no apparent reason.  She was the only one who slept through the night before she was one.  Yes, that was Delaney.  And now....  now, I have another of my traditional babies.

Rylee wants to be held continually.  She does not want me to be horizontal when I hold her in the middle of the night, thus ruling out the possibility of  any sleeping by me. She only "sleeps" for short bursts and when put down she wakes immediately, and wants to be held again.  I get 10 minutes at a time to do stuff requiring 2 hands.  Everything else must be accomplished with a baby under one arm.  She cries because she has to burp frequently and she seems very uncomfortable.  I don't know why its mostly at night, since she can sleep very sweetly all afternoon.  I won't complain about that because it coordinates with Delaney's nap so I also get a nap!   

Still, nights are not a lot of fun for me.  I went to bed at 8 last night.  Was up less than an hour later.  Rylee ate and then slept from 9:30 to 11:30.   Then she was up till after 1am- crying pitifully, burping, and spitting up.  Such fun.  She fell asleep around 1am and slept till 4.  Then she cried and spit up and cried and fussed till 7.  I got to sleep another 90 minutes before she was up and ravenous.  Sigh.  Occasionally I win the nightime lottery and get more than an average of 6 total hours of sleep.  6 total is my goal for functionality.  Much less than that and I'm not going to do well.  We've been close the last few nights.

Here's the little darling now.  So cute, so precious.  This is the face I see for a few hours each day as she sleeps peacefully.  This is not the face I see at night.  

Cute yawning face.  So adorable.  These are the faces that keep me from eating my young.

Rylee is not as bad as Callie was as a baby.  And I know this won't last forever.  I know some of you are thinking I should just put her down and let her cry.  I don't do that.  I feel that these are little babies.  Their big spirits just recently left Heavenly Father and got stuffed into this tiny, unresponsive body.  They don't know how to operate their little body, all they know is when they are uncomfortable.  Even if I can't fix it, there is no way I'm letting her suffer alone.  If she's unhappy, she's at least unhappy in arms that love her.  So no, I'm not going to just let her cry.  Well, not until I've reached my limit and I'm contemplating eating her.  Then I know to put her down and walk away for a while.

Right now I do have to hold her most of the day.  She hasn't slept much in the last few mornings.  This makes it hard to get up and on with my day.  Dan has his paternity leave right now, and he'll be home through the end of the week.  Then I'm on my own!  Today Dan wanted to go on a long bike ride to try out a new path. He's been fantastic, and he deserved a break from the house, so he was gone from 9am to 1pm today.  Rylee was not cooperative.  I spent the morning in my PJs, unshowered, with a baby under my arm.  Every time I thought she might be down to sleep, she wasn't.

Finally, I thought she might be happy for a bit and I wrapped her in her blanket, set her in the vibrating bouncy seat in the bathroom and took a shower.  Rylee was content.  When I got out, it was Delaney who was the problem!

Yep, this kid.  She had gone outside to play, which she is NOT suppose to do while I'm in the shower.  I'm still not sure how she got the door open.  I'm even less sure on how she managed to get her bike half way into the house.  She was crying that her bike was stuck and she wanted it inside.  I got dressed and went downstairs.  Delaney was still upset about her bike being stuck in the doorway.  I said no bikes in the house.  That led to a complete meltdown and soon I had Delaney in hysterics over the bike, and Rylee howling that she was starving and must be fed right now.  I'm not sure I'm ready for Dan to go back to work.