A day in the life of Norah
Since Norah is a little over five weeks old and is starting to act more like a human, I thought I'd enlighten everyone to how a month-old baby spends her day. If you have children, this might be a little familiar to you ...
Okay, she wakes up about 5 a.m. She's actually sleeping a lot, and not waking up every two hours like babies are supposed to. Go Norah! However, when she does wake up, she wants to eat, and once Krys gets her in her room, she goes to the booby like a Q-Tip at the early bird special at Denny's.¹ So for about an hour, Krys feeds her. Then, just about when Mia is waking up, they go back to bed. Sometimes Krys can get back to sleep, sometimes she can't. Norah sleeps until about 8 or 9, and then it's crying time! It's all about the crying with Norah!
So we wheel her bassinet out of the bedroom and into the living room. Krys feeds her again - she's like a locust! As Krys pointed out, she has decided that lactose intolerance is the way to go, so after the breast, we hit her with the soy! For most of the morning, her routine goes thusly: eat, cry, eat some more, cry, suck on a pacifier, spit out the pacifier because, I don't know, it's not minty fresh, cry, eat some more ... you get the idea. Krys can magically burp her, but she refuses to do so for me. Lousy kid - I told Krys we should have kept the receipt!
So this goes on for a few hours. We're actually pretty impressed with her - she is raising her head quite well, and whenever she's upset in her bassinet she pushes off on her knees and tries to crawl. She'll be zipping around by the end of next week at this rate! We pass her back and forth depending on what we're doing with Mia. Yesterday Krys and Mia went out to the mall and I held Norah for two hours. She drank, she cried, she sucked, she cried, she drank - her repertoire is rather limited.
Then, around noon, it's nap time. Formula, more than breast milk, makes kids sleepy, so we give her that when we want her to go down. We put her in the bassinet on her stomach. Oh no, you can't do that - what about SIDS? Well, that's the chance we have to take, isn't it? Babies sleep better on their bellies. We have also found out that babies who die from SIDS make a lot of noise when they are having problems, so if she is going to die, we'll know. She doesn't sleep through the night on her belly, but we think it's okay for her nap. Yes, we're bad parents!
She looks like a frog when she sleeps - it's quite cute. She sleeps for many hours, and only occasionally gets cranky and makes "I'm pissed off at the world" noises. We wake her up around the same time we get Mia up - between 4.30 and 5 o'clock. Of course, she is quite hungry. It's shocking! So Krys feeds her again. This makes her happy for approximately ten minutes. While I'm holding Mia and feeding her, Krys is hanging out with her on the sofa. After I feed Mia, Krys likes to read to her, so I get Demon Child #2 or she goes in her bassinet, depending on whether or not she's being calm. If she starts getting cranky in the bassinet, we try to give her the pacifier. She's quite funny with the pacifier - it seems to pacify her, but she twists her head around to try to get it out of her mouth. She hasn't figured out that her hands can hold things in her mouth yet, so they're pretty useless. After Krys reads to Mia, the really fun part of the evening begins. We have to get Mia ready for bed, but Norah is unhappy if we ignore her. So we're getting Mia changed and I'm getting her medicine, and Norah is screaming her head off. Krys then has to put her in the carrier that straps onto her chest, and that makes her happy. We used to read to Mia while she was getting her bottle, but that's been more difficult these days because of Norah wanting attention. Finally, Mia's down, and we can concentrate on Norah.
Krys usually feeds her again, and then it's time to try to put her to sleep. We've been trying to get her down before 10 o'clock, because it's never to early to get her on a schedule! Krys swaddles her in a blanket and wraps her up like a burrito, and then it's off to bed! We put her on her side, okay? We don't want CPS to come and take her away! If she's swaddled, she doesn't flail around with her hands and knock her pacifier away, and therefore she sleeps. At 5 o'clock, the routine starts again.
Sounds fun, doesn't it? I think babies cry for the most part because they are bored out of their minds. She's having a groovy time looking around and checking things out, but I think she really wants to explore on her own. She's actually quite a good baby - she only cries when she really wants something, and she sleeps well and doesn't get too freaked out by Mia screeching (Mia is impressed with the volume of her voice, so she screeches a lot). But she has to be bored. Would you like living this way? I didn't think so.
¹ A "Q-Tip" is a derogatory term for the old-timers who visit here in the winter. Also known as: snowbirds.
Okay, she wakes up about 5 a.m. She's actually sleeping a lot, and not waking up every two hours like babies are supposed to. Go Norah! However, when she does wake up, she wants to eat, and once Krys gets her in her room, she goes to the booby like a Q-Tip at the early bird special at Denny's.¹ So for about an hour, Krys feeds her. Then, just about when Mia is waking up, they go back to bed. Sometimes Krys can get back to sleep, sometimes she can't. Norah sleeps until about 8 or 9, and then it's crying time! It's all about the crying with Norah!
So we wheel her bassinet out of the bedroom and into the living room. Krys feeds her again - she's like a locust! As Krys pointed out, she has decided that lactose intolerance is the way to go, so after the breast, we hit her with the soy! For most of the morning, her routine goes thusly: eat, cry, eat some more, cry, suck on a pacifier, spit out the pacifier because, I don't know, it's not minty fresh, cry, eat some more ... you get the idea. Krys can magically burp her, but she refuses to do so for me. Lousy kid - I told Krys we should have kept the receipt!
So this goes on for a few hours. We're actually pretty impressed with her - she is raising her head quite well, and whenever she's upset in her bassinet she pushes off on her knees and tries to crawl. She'll be zipping around by the end of next week at this rate! We pass her back and forth depending on what we're doing with Mia. Yesterday Krys and Mia went out to the mall and I held Norah for two hours. She drank, she cried, she sucked, she cried, she drank - her repertoire is rather limited.
Then, around noon, it's nap time. Formula, more than breast milk, makes kids sleepy, so we give her that when we want her to go down. We put her in the bassinet on her stomach. Oh no, you can't do that - what about SIDS? Well, that's the chance we have to take, isn't it? Babies sleep better on their bellies. We have also found out that babies who die from SIDS make a lot of noise when they are having problems, so if she is going to die, we'll know. She doesn't sleep through the night on her belly, but we think it's okay for her nap. Yes, we're bad parents!
She looks like a frog when she sleeps - it's quite cute. She sleeps for many hours, and only occasionally gets cranky and makes "I'm pissed off at the world" noises. We wake her up around the same time we get Mia up - between 4.30 and 5 o'clock. Of course, she is quite hungry. It's shocking! So Krys feeds her again. This makes her happy for approximately ten minutes. While I'm holding Mia and feeding her, Krys is hanging out with her on the sofa. After I feed Mia, Krys likes to read to her, so I get Demon Child #2 or she goes in her bassinet, depending on whether or not she's being calm. If she starts getting cranky in the bassinet, we try to give her the pacifier. She's quite funny with the pacifier - it seems to pacify her, but she twists her head around to try to get it out of her mouth. She hasn't figured out that her hands can hold things in her mouth yet, so they're pretty useless. After Krys reads to Mia, the really fun part of the evening begins. We have to get Mia ready for bed, but Norah is unhappy if we ignore her. So we're getting Mia changed and I'm getting her medicine, and Norah is screaming her head off. Krys then has to put her in the carrier that straps onto her chest, and that makes her happy. We used to read to Mia while she was getting her bottle, but that's been more difficult these days because of Norah wanting attention. Finally, Mia's down, and we can concentrate on Norah.
Krys usually feeds her again, and then it's time to try to put her to sleep. We've been trying to get her down before 10 o'clock, because it's never to early to get her on a schedule! Krys swaddles her in a blanket and wraps her up like a burrito, and then it's off to bed! We put her on her side, okay? We don't want CPS to come and take her away! If she's swaddled, she doesn't flail around with her hands and knock her pacifier away, and therefore she sleeps. At 5 o'clock, the routine starts again.
Sounds fun, doesn't it? I think babies cry for the most part because they are bored out of their minds. She's having a groovy time looking around and checking things out, but I think she really wants to explore on her own. She's actually quite a good baby - she only cries when she really wants something, and she sleeps well and doesn't get too freaked out by Mia screeching (Mia is impressed with the volume of her voice, so she screeches a lot). But she has to be bored. Would you like living this way? I didn't think so.
¹ A "Q-Tip" is a derogatory term for the old-timers who visit here in the winter. Also known as: snowbirds.
posted by Greg at
9:09 PM
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