OT - I'm going insane

[AndyC]

I almost forgot it was Monday morning. The entire weekend, since last Friday afternoon, all just ran together. Change the baby, help feed the baby, feed the dogs, clean, change a load of the continuous laundry, cook a meal, try to get some yard work done, try to get a quick shower, try to nap, repeat.

My daughter is starting to sleep for longer periods, but she always has a long fussy period at around 1am. The last couple of nights, she just kept repeatedly waking up (not hungry, not gassy, not anything we can determine), and I would volunteer to try to get her settled back down, which meant taking her to the rec room so she wouldn't wake my wife. When my back starts to scream from the rocking and bouncing, I turn to the swing (AKA the Neglect-o-Matic), a marvelous invention that never fails to get her to sleep, hopefully before she's ready to eat again. I just have to keep myself awake in the meantime. Occasionally, there is good stuff on TV in the middle of the night.

Last night, as I hadn't slept more than a few hours all weekend, and hadn't even had a chance to grab a coffee (in Canada, coffee shops are such an institution, many of us don't even keep the stuff in the house), totally exhausted and ready to collapse, what was on TV?

I had a choice between Paulie Shore in Jury Duty and Carrot Top in Chairman of the Board. Noooooooo! Thankfully, a bit of searching turned up some back-to-back Peter Davison Doctor Who on BBC Kids. Whew!

I can just see all you other fathers nodding in understanding.



Post Edited (10-03-05 11:58)

[raj]

Eh, sanity is overrated.

[Gerry]

AndyC wrote:

> I can just see all you other fathers nodding in understanding.

Welcome to the rest of your life...what's left of it.

[ulthar]

AndyC wrote:

>
> I can just see all you other fathers nodding in understanding.
>

Yep.  Hang in there.  As you've no doubt heard from others, it DOES get better.

The consistent fussy period, with no "apparent cause" is common.  My daughter was like that around 4 pm every day - for several hours at a time.  It should stop somewhere around 4-6 months (one prevailing theory is that due to normal, incomplete neurological development, the baby senses what we would call anger but has not physiological means to process it; as the brain continues to develop, this resolves itself).  This is what people call "colick" and it used to be thought to be tummy related.  Nowadays, to a doctor, the term colick simply means the child cries for more than 4 hours in a 24 hour period (which I think ecompasses almost every baby, but oh well).  The anger could stem from sleepiness and 'not knowing' that sleep will remedy the feeling.

Dr. Who is a good choice, btw, but I would have settled for Jury Duty (can you believe I actually paid money to see this in the theatre when it came out? I think I was desparate for a comedy...).  Brain Dead Entertainment does seem to go well with crying baby.

Good Luck.

[Andrew]

I am with you Andy.  My little boy, Andy, has been having a hard time with teething and that results in miserable nights.  Well, we have been going full steam at the unit.  Marines going out, Marines coming back.  My last week as Staff Duty Officer was hell, because a bunch of Marines came back from Iraq and Africa at all hours.  (The Staff Duty takes care of checking the compound security after hours, making airport runs, etc.)  

Now, to top things off, we had drill weekend for the reserves.  Saturday we finished at about 2315 and had to be back at 0630.  Then Sunday lasted until about 1900.  Add all that with everything else (Andy's late night teething screaming included) and I was so fatigued as to be nauseous and shaking.  I ate something, then collapsed and slept 12 hours, with a couple of breaks to get up, eat more, and take care of Andy or Jenna.

Have not been that worn out in years.  It was the sheer lack of sleep and tempo of the drill weekend.  That and not having time to eat properly.  You can do a lot to survive no sleep, so long as you are eating enough and drinking fluids.

Oh, another reason they can be fussy is just growing pain.  You try adding inches onto your bones and muscle and what have you, in that short a period.

[trekgeezer]

Boy, I'm glad those days are long over. I remember when my son had his first ear infection and the wife and I had to take shifts holding him in the rocker all night because he would cry bloody murder every time we layed him down.

Wait until you have to teach them to drive! It's especially fun in a standard.

[Shadowphile]

I recall one seemingly endless day of walking my screaming daughter from the front door to the back door (42 steps.  I still remember) taking turns with her mother.  After what seemed like an eternity, a friend dropped by .  He took one look at us, assumed we were both on the edge of either A:murder or B: Insanity and took her out of my arms.

She immediately stopped crying and went to sleep.

I didn't know it I wanted to fall to me knees and thank him, or kill him.  All I knew at that point was that silence was a blessing.

Dr Who? is always a good choice.  The theme music is very calming, I find.

[AndyC]

So, the very night after I posted this, Rowan slept through the night. She had a couple of big meals late in the evening, nodded off around 10:30, and wasn't up again until 4:30am. She ate again and slept until 8. It was so sudden, and such a huge relief.

Ironically, when she doesn't have an awake period in the middle of the night, I realize I've developed one from being up with her. I woke up at 3:30 this morning and was wide awake for two hours. She's now got me up in the middle of the night, even when she's not!

At least my wife got a great night's sleep. Generally, her sleep has more bearing on my happiness than my own.