Monday, September 11, 2006

Worse than typical night feeding

2:05 I finally rouse myself after several minutes of Claire's chirrupings and pick her up and go into the nursery...the night light isn't on, the mobile is blocking the bouncy seat where I would normally put her down, she is already fussing. I carry her into the kitchen and grab a bottle of breastmilk from the fridge and stick it in the milkwarmer. One-handed, I push the button and knock the whole thing over and water goes everywhere. I fumble to get a paper towel (still one-handed) while Claire is crying more loudly in my ear. There is no pacifier in sight. I grab a cup and refill the warmer and get the milk started. I go sit in the rocker and reach for the nipple shield which I also had just looked for on the drying rack in the kitchen. With no night light on I can't find it. I get Claire to latch onto the breast and she quiets down for 5 mins or so while the milk heats. I get up and change her diaper...the crying starts again. This time there is a pacifier within reach...she won't keep it in her mouth and keeps crying and moving making it difficult to do the diaper change. I turn on the night light and give up on getting the second snap fastened (good news is she has practically grown out of this onsie.) I take Claire and grab the bottle out of the warmer and exchange the lid for a nipple (one-handed). Finally we sit down and I put the bottle in her mouth and the crying ceases. I tuck a bib under her chin and she chugs milk loudly. I'm thirsty, but can't find the water bottle I set out last night. I tip the bottle down so she won't chug so fast. (They call this a slow flow nipple??) She eats and poops. I burp her. She finishes the bottle. I try for 10-15 minutes to get another burp. I'm still thirsty. I put her on an incline on the bed to change her. I re-swaddle her. Whew no spit up. I sit back down and she spits up. I rock her to sleep. Just as I'm about to get up to put her in bed she wakes up and I do it again. Finally at 3:10 I put her in bed. I hold her for a couple of minutes. When I let go she makes a clearing-the-throat type noise (This is her typical night noise.) I watch her and she settles down and stops kicking. I go get a snack and my pump parts; I hear her making a few noises, I start pumping and hear nothing more from her. 3:48 I'm done and can get back to bed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my! What a night!! I hope you were able to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep after all that.

I remember when you were a baby and I was having a hard time soothing you, I would just keep reminding myself that this wouldn't last forever.

Mark said...

Sorry I stole the water bottle. I thought you had set it out for me since I was feeding the baby when you brought it in.