Hi Ho, Hi Ho…

My maternity leave is over, and I’m back at work. I feel like I have a million things to tell you, but the second I sit down to type up a blog post my mind goes blank and I sit staring at the screen, drool leaking out of my mouth, until it drips down and short circuits the keyboard, effectively ending my wool gathering.

Therefore, I thought I’d at least get a few things down, no matter how disjointed. Maybe it will kick start the blogging habit.

Ellie is…Ellie is fabulous. I miss her, desperately, achingly, while I’m at work, and yet a small part of me enjoys being able to (gasp!) go to the bathroom when I want to. Here’s some Ellie updates in bullet form:

• We sleep trained her. Ferberized. Cry it out. Committed child abuse. Best thing ever. Around 2 months Ellie was a champion sleeper. Once we figured out swaddling, it was all gravy. I’d nurse her before bed, she’d fall asleep, I’d transfer her to the Rock ‘n’ Play, and she’d sleep for 6-7 hours. Then I’d get up and feed her back to sleep, and we’d both snooze for a few more hours. HOWEVER, around 3 months her sleep started to deteriorate, fast. No longer could I nurse her to sleep. She would fall asleep in our arms (bouncing/rocking/etc) and then wake up pissed off the second you tried to put her down. Within a few weeks we were bouncing her for hours at night, and every night wake up (which also increased in number!) required hours more of bouncing/rocking/shushing/patting/omfg will you go to sleep already. Shades of the first few weeks of her life (*shudder*). So we ripped off that band aid, removed the swaddle, and did progressive waiting. The first night she cried for an hour before falling asleep. There were 5 wakeups that night, but only one required going in and patting. I fed her once (I had decided I would only feed her after 2am, when I thought it was possible she was hungry, rather than wanting to comfort suck) and then we had to do the crying/going in and patting/progressive waiting all over again. The second night she cried for 45 minutes. The third, 20 minutes. The fourth, 2 minutes. Now, almost a week into training, she will grumble/babble to herself for less than five minutes and then go to sleep, waking once to be fed, and then go right back down. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. I feel good about it (after the first few days of nausea induced anxiety). I firmly believe sleeping and self soothing are skills that kids need to learn, and just like all skills, some kids need more help than others to learn and perfect them.
• She’s with a nanny for the first two weeks of me back at work, until her spot in day care opens up. We had been assured her spot would be available when I went back to work (BECAUSE WE SIGNED UP 9 MONTHS BEFORE WE WOULD NEED A SPOT) only to be told in March that whoops! spot not available until maybe  the end of the summer. So we scrambled around and signed up with another family in our neighborhood to do a nanny share. And then – whoops! – the spot opened up June 2nd. So we are only using the nanny for two weeks. I kind of feel like we dicked over the other family but, we told them we were waiting for our daycare spot so, eh.
• Ellie holds her head up like a champ, and really really  wants to sit up. She actually CAN sit up, but cannot balance and/or sustain sitting up, so we balance her on our laps.
• She is a smiley, happy baby as long as she has constant stimulation. I hadn’t realized just how high maintenance she really was until I saw the other baby in the nanny share. Hello, mellow. This baby is a week younger than Ellie, but you can just lay her down, put a toy in her lap, and she’ll just…lay there, kind of batting at the toy. Try that with Ellie and wait for the screams of outrage.
• Naps are still a disaster. Apparently sleep training is harder for naps than for nighttime sleep.

CRAP, I’ve got more but my lunch is over and I have to go pump. Hopefully it will be less than a month before I write again. What’s up with y’all? You miss me? I missed you!