Sleep! Glorious sleep! I’m dancing a jig in honor of sleep while I type this.
Allow me to explain. We took Sam to the doctor’s a few days ago for her 8 week checkup. The nurse practitioner was agast to learn that we were still waking Sam up every 4 hours during the night to feed her. “Never wake a sleeping baby!” she cried, and we were more than happy to take her advice. (With brand newborns, it turns out, you need to make sure feed every 2-3 hours, but by 8 weeks it’s not necessary unless she wakes up on her own.)
So we turned off the alarm clocks and let our baby go that night. And did she ever go …to sleep and stayed that way for six hours straight! In fact, for four of the last five nights she’s slept for 6 hours straight, took a light meal, slept for another 3 hours or so, then woke up grinning and happy as a pig in slop. That’s nine hours of sleep for all three of us, six of which are uninterrupted! It seems we’ve made it over the first sleep deprivation hump, though there’s probably another hump or two in the road coming up.
Sleep advice was not the only thing that came out of this week’s doctor’s visit. Sam got a clean bill of health and was pronounced to be lying right in the 50th percentile in terms of length, weight, and massive head size for her age, but she also got four innoculations. In fact, this is why I was there in the first place. Geralyn didn’t want to hold Sam’s arms while she got four needles jammed into her pudgy little legs, so I got to step into the role. It was pretty awful, and Sam gave me a look that suggested that there would be no elder care for me in 40 year’s time when the tables were turned.
Geralyn got her share of trouble, though, because the innoculations made Sam cranky and slightly feverish for the rest of the day. By the time I came home from work it was my turn again, but Sam was fairly inconsolable until she finally exhausted herself and went to sleep.
In general, we can definitely tell that Sam is making the transition from “newborn” to “baby”. She’s generally alert, she reacts to our voice, her eyes and head follow us when we move about, she smiles when she’s happy, and her newest hobby is making experimental sounds. Some of the latter are pretty funny and we always look forward to them. The thing we’re really anticipating is her being able to interact with toys and objects more so that we can actually play with her. As it stands now, our interactions are still pretty much limited to feeding, calming her down, changing her diaper, bathing her, holding her, and getting her to smile.
You may notice that singing to her is not on that list. There are two reasons. First, nether Ger nor myself are very good singers. When I sing, it sounds like I’m stomping on a cat, which seems to distress Sam even more. The second reason is that we can’t really find any songs we like. They all seem to be about disease, animal cruelty, child abuse, rampant consumerism, and promiscuous sex. And even the ones on more pleasant topics seem far too outdated. Who sings about churning buttermilk, sixpences, hot cross buns, or hanging laundry out to dry? I want songs about modern things for modern kids and their modern parents. Songs about cel phones, instant messaging, globalization of the world economy, celebrity worship, corrupt politicians, corporate malfeasance, and urban sprawl.
Where are these songs? Are you people going to make me write them like I did with the alphabet?
Bah. Well, in the meantime here’s some pictures of Samantha:
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This week’s featured baby product is the velvety blue jumper that Sam is wearing in some of the pictures above. It’s a Ralph Lauren, don’t you know, probably the nicest single article of clothing that Sam currently owns. The only problem is it’s got roughly nineteen thousand tiny buttons –the kind that you have to turn sideways and thread through little slits– that are all on the back of the outfit. So I had to flip Sam over on her tummy, feed her legs into this thing, then spend half an hour working the itty bitty buttons. Still, it’s superlatively fashionable and she looks good in it, so I decided she had to get all dressed up at least once …for an outing at Lowes Home Improvement to shop for furnace filters. She was the best dressed baby in the joint until she yarked all over herself.
That baby’s hair just cracks me the hell up. She’s such a cutie.
Yay for sleep! Woo hoo!
As far as music for kids goes, I highly recommend The Wiggles. If you don’t care for singing, you can play their CDs or videos. They’re age-appropriate for small children, but they’re upbeat and kind of pop-musicky. Beware, though, the songs stick in your head semi-permanently…particularly Hot Potato!
Sam says “Thanks!” She also says “humm umm muh!” 🙂
Cool, I’ll check that out. I also have a couple of the Baby Einstein DVDs that we’re waiting to use. Sam isn’t quite old enough to focus on videos or music just yet, but she’s getting better.
She’s old enough for Baby Einstein, especially the music-oriented ones, like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Put in the bouncy seat and just press Play. One hour of sheer, quiet-baby-goodness. I promise.