Baby Update (and a few other things)

We’re getting into kind of a routine, sort of.

Paisley usually takes a morning nap, an early afternoon nap, and a late afternoon nap or an evening nap.  Sometimes the naps are broken up into little pieces, and sometimes they are long naps.  Most naps are preceded by a very fussy period, because Paisley is tired, but she doesn’t realize it’s up to her to fix it.

In the evenings, for the past few weeks, sometime between 5:30 and 11 pm Paisley becomes VERY SAD, and MAD!!! for at least an hour and a half or two hours.  Is it colic?  Purple crying? A “wonder week” [Plooij 2012]?  I have no idea.  What I do know is that it is almost impossible to comfort her, and it’s a rough time for us.  Reading The Wonder Weeks: How to stimulate your baby’s mental development and help him turn his 10 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward has helped me feel compassion for Paisley when she is fussy.  Instead of being irritated with her for being so needy for so long, I’m usually just sad that she feels so much distress.  Feeling that way makes it a lot easier to be patient with her, and to continue trying to comfort her, even when it seems like I’m not helping at all.  Sometimes I have set her down, because it seems like she is so unhappy that she must not want to be cuddled right then…but setting her down only makes her shriek and cry more hysterically.  So, it seems that she does want me to keep trying to comfort her, even if it isn’t helping much.  If she’s having that hard of a time, the least I can do is give her some familiar, loving company. 

Last time, I mentioned that Paisley had started sleeping badly at night.  That got better again!  We started letting her sleep in her swing, which seems like something we’re maybe not supposed to do…but when we tried that she slept in 4 hour chunks again.  And then this week there have been a few nights where Paisley has slept 6.5-7.5 hours.  Part of me wonders if it’s okay for her to sleep that long, but mostly I’m just appreciating the sleep!

Paisley is starting to smile more.  And she vocalizes with us more.  I usually have a few “conversations” with her every day.  Twice I’ve heard her giggle in her sleep, and once I’ve heard her laugh in her sleep; it made me laugh, because it was such a surprise to hear it coming from her.  She never giggles or laughs when she is awake, though, so I’m curious: what is she dreaming about that is funny, if she’s never thought anything was funny when she was awake (not even once)?

We’re getting to know her better, and we’re figuring out what she likes and doesn’t like.  If Paisley is awake, she only likes her swing for about 2-15 minutes.  BUT!  I had a breakthrough about a week ago: Paisley likes to be bounced.  So, I sit on my “birth ball” (is it an “exercise ball” again now that the baby is born?) in her nursery and we bounce while I shush her, and pat her back.  That usually works!  [We finally ordered a bouncy seat from Amazon and it’s coming on Friday.  I’m predicting that she will like it better than her swing.]  She also likes the MOBY better than the maya wrap (ring sling). 

When I read Beyond the Sling, I heard about EC (“Elimination Communication”) for the first time.  Since then I ordered a book and a DVD about it, and I decided we’re going to try it.  Basically, it’s infant potty training.  The idea is that babies actually are not interested in soiling themselves, and that they just get used to diapers, and then people have to un-train them to soil themselves as toddlers.  Moms in some African and Asian areas don’t use diapers at all—they just give the baby opportunities to go to the bathroom, and the baby learns to wait for those times. 

The Western version of infant potty training is kind of cool—babies end up potty trained really young, and they’ll let you know that they need to go by crawling to the bathroom, or using sign language.  I think it sounds really interesting, so we’re going to try it.  We have a tiny infant potty, and prefold cloth diapers (for starting with).  I ordered tiny infant training pants, and a pattern for them so that I can make more if we like them.  (I found out today that one of my friends actually did EC with her youngest child—and they were totally successful.  Huh.)

Hm, what else?  Here are a few non-baby things: 

I got new glasses yesterday.  Well, I didn’t get them, but I picked them and paid for them.  I decided to live large and go for the thin polysomething lenses with anti-glare, so I may actually wear them sometimes!  The frames are pretty cool. They’re different colors if you look at them from different angles.

Jeff is using all of his time at home to develop his own program.  He is very, very, very excited about it.  It’s an investment-related program, and he loves to talk to me about it, all the time.  He also loves to sit next to me with his computer, and program while he talks to me.  About programming stuff.

I’m doing more property management stuff.  Lately, I feel like I am in the business of collections, because I have several tenants that have slipped into a pattern of paying late every month.  I really hate having to confront tenants about late rent.  That is definitely one of my least favorite parts of the job.  In good news, I have a new management account, and the tenants will be moving into the house this weekend. 

I think that’s all for now.