Mommy in the Middle

Hours of nighttime wakefulness were common for me when PJ was a newborn and didn't know her nights from days.  Now she sleeps solid chunks at a time with very short periods of wakefulness in between.  She's a "good" sleeper.

Yet, tonight marks the second night in a row that I've been awake more than asleep.  Why am I up so much?
I'm afraid to move.  

I lie here stiff, moving my arms only enough to tap tap tap on my iPhone, using the Blogger app to draft this post.  On one side of the bed, there's a baby who has just outgrown her nest and loves to squirm and sprawl.  She must maintain a certain distance from the edge and from any pillows, so her mattress real-estate is a larger plot than one would expect for a twelve-pound human being.  On the other side, there's a six foot six man bundled up in multiple blankets, already pushed so far toward his edge of the bed its a wonder he doesn't roll off.

And in the middle, there's me.  

I'm so alert not to elbow the little one in the head or knee the big one in the back.   When I do doze off it's only a doze and it's only temporary.  But she, she is still too small to cuddle safely amongst the pillows and blankets.  And me, I'm not ready to move her to her crib.   And he, he MUST get a good night's sleep, the man works longer hours than I.   We three in a bed.  Ahh my insomnia!

People told me when I was pregnant that I would never enjoy the same careless deep sleep.  Can this be true?  Never??

our little sleeping bed hog

Worry Not, 4 normal things about babies

Inspired by some recent momversations (yep, just made that one up)... here are four peculiar things about babies that I wish someone had told me that I didn't need to be concerned about.

1. The dry flakey skin.  Regardless of what lotions and oils I used, PJ had some serious dry skin when she was a newborn, and then again at about three or four weeks old. Something about the transition from the womb to the outside world and the phases and layers of the skin. Regardless, it's normal. And it goes away.

2. The eye goop.  While not all babies get it, PJ has it pretty bad. It's the same stuff that adults would call having 'sleep' in their eye, but green and way more, uh, persistent. Our pediatrician said if it hasn't phased itself out by the time she's one, then we might look into it further, but until then it's nothing to worry about. Just keep at it with warm, wet (clean) wash cloths and good ol' fashioned breastmilk to the eye.

3. The weird-looking, shape-changing, almost-translucent sometimes-purple belly button.  This one probably weirded us out the most. It looked like it must be a hernia the way it would bulge out whenever she cried or grunted. But... totally normal. And now, she is over three months old and her belly button is starting to look more like you would expect it to.

4. The long periods of time between poops.  Ahem... I mean bowel movements. Once PJ reached about two months, she started having BM's less frequently.  Just this week she set a personal record of 13 days without pooping.  For exclusively breast-fed (EBF) babies this is very common.  I have several mommy friends whose babies have gone twenty-something days between poops. Talk about saving on diapers. Apparently, EBF babies don't get constipated, it's impossible; they just don't have much waste.

"Who are you calling peculiar?"

At the end of the day, if there's something that I'm just not sure about, I never hesitate to call our pediatrician. I figure, he has heard it all before and he coaches new parents all the time. But it's nice to know when other people notice the same curious things about their little munchkins. If nothing else, gives us things to chuckle about later. Maybe this made you chuckle or maybe it will save you a phone call to your pediatrician some day!!