Mommy Fail

I think some of the funniest things to read on people's blogs are when things DON'T go right.  I love how my friend, Lindsay, always refers to herself as "Mother of the Year" sarcastically when something has gone awry (when she is an AMAZING mother and deserves a MotY award) and willing shares her experiences.  Well, here is my first blog totally devoted to my Mommy Fail.

I bought the book Babywise.  I've heard lots of different things about the book, so I wanted to check it out for myself.  Well, I thought it was fabulous and it makes a lot of sense.  So, I decided to implement it for Cami.  All in one day.  With different bottles (Dr. Brown's leak, but she loves them).  Oh, and by the way, we're working on napping in the crib again.

I should add that until yesterday Cami had been on an eat, sleep, play routine.  The girl just conks out after a good bottle (haha, so does Mommy....).  Sometimes during the bottle (haha, so does...nevermind, we digress).  It seems to work well for her.  Well, Mr. Babywise says this is a mistake; babies should go eat, play, sleep.  On a time schedule (which Cami really does not have....I just won't feed her inside two hours unless it's right before bed).  I have a tendency to get a little overzealous about things so I tried to get Cami to eat, play, sleep.  She was confused.  She wanted to cuddle up and snooze after her bottle.  I kept moving her around.  It's playtime! 

After traumatizing her with playtime (her face actually does look slightly terrified after a good dose of tummy time), I took her upstairs for a crib nap.  "Um, excuse me, Mommy, I'm usually being fed in this chair?" was, I'm sure, what she was trying to tell me.  To stop her polite (?) protests, I gave her her paci.  She loves it, eyes shut, sleep.  Success.  Right?

Nope.  About 30 minutes later Cami woke up and realized her stomach is not in it's usual state of comfortable fullness while she's sleeping.  She does great at night with going back to sleep if she wiggles herself awake.  So I know she can put herself back to sleep.  But this is daytime, and her tummy isn't full.  "Um, excuse me, Mommy??!!!??" was once again her polite call from the crib (or yell, scream, shriek, whatever).  I got her, brought her downstairs, fed her, and took her for a ride in the car.  Zzzzzzzz (Mr. Babywise would be scandalized as this behavior).

Happy baby once again.  Sleeping in the car is just the trick.  So, a couple hours later, it's time for crib nap #2.  Once again, no feeding before, rocked her and into the crib she went.  This one lasted about 45 minutes, but by this point I was further along in the book.  Mr. Babywise said let a baby that wakes up in the middle of a nap cry for a little bit.  I listened to 15 minutes of absolutely pitiful noise from the crib and then went and got her.

Cami was a little fussy at this point, and, really, who can blame her?  She'd had two sub-par naps.  I probably gave up and let her have a good swing nap, right?  Nope.  Attempted crib nap #3 and there was absolutely no sleeping.  Crying from the start and never stopped.  After I brought her downstairs I set her in her bouncer while I went to make a bottle and suddenly it got very quiet.  Poor little thing was passed out. 

I was a little concerned that all this in and out of the crib would put a damper on her smooth nighttime routine, but in fact, she went right with her routine, went to sleep and didn't fuss til 5am! 7pm - 5am.  The best she's ever done and I was PUMPED.  We'll see if she does it again tonight without the total exhaustion of a Mommy Fail day.  :)