(no subject)
Oct. 13th, 2003 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerI've tried to make a couple of entries that got lost in some message board glitch. I've now downloaded an actual LiveJournal client which will hopefully solve that particular frustration.
Anyway, some updates, in no particular order:
1. Molly announced at dinner tonight that she wanted Kiera to go "far, far away." And never come back. Very cheerfully. Ed pointed out that she's been asking for Kiera to sleep in her room, and Kiera won't ever be able to do that if she's gone far, far away. Molly immediately switched to asking us to set up the crib so Kiera could sleep in her room. Go figure. We told her that first, Kiera needs to be able to sleep for at least most of the night without screaming for a good chunk of it. Molly has been sleeping through Kiera's fits quite peacefully, but I think this might be more of a problem if Kiera were in her room.
Other than this particular outburst, and a couple of potty accidents, and a marked increase in her (pretty normal) three-year-old snottiness, Molly seems to be adjusting to big sisterhood pretty well.
2. Kiera is less happy about adjusting to this whole not-being-in-the-womb-anymore business. Molly was a pretty easy baby: as long as she was being held, and has free access to nurse whenever the mood struck, she was happy. Kiera wants more labor-intensive things. She wants to be bounced, or held up against your shoulder and patted (like you're burping her, except she wants you to keep on doing this for a good half hour). And sometimes nothing makes her happy. When this happens, it usually happens in the middle of the night. Although last night, she was only happy while being held upright and patted from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Ed is a morning person and I am a night person, so we split the shift at 5 a.m., mostly. I deal with Kiera during the night, and Ed gets up with her in the morning (and morning starts at 5 a.m.) I get to sleep as late as I want. Thank goodness for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which is what Ed is using for his paternity leave.
3. I got changes back from my editor, to my new novel (which I turned in back on August 15th), right before I delivered. I took a two-week vacation from everything after the delivery, and started working on edits and rewrites about a week ago. It's going pretty well. Except for my horrible lingering anxiety about all the historical details I'm getting horribly wrong. (It's fantasy. I have no actual obligation to get the historical stuff "right," even though I'm using a real-world setting, sort of. So what if pockets weren't actually invented until 1958 in the real world, in MY world they date back to the Stone Age. But I still worry about it.)
4. Regarding Kiera's fussiness, a friend recommended the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block," which I promptly checked out of the library. The author highly recommends, among other things, swaddling. Really tight swaddling that pins the baby's arms down to her sides. He notes that swaddling itself won't usually calm your baby, but then you can do other stuff and they're more likely to stay calm because they can't flail their arms around. I've found that swaddling either works incredibly well, transforming her in minutes from a screaming furious red-faced baby to a calm sleeping one, or it makes her go absolutely ballistic, and it can be extremely difficult to predict which it will do at any given moment. Also, if I swaddle her at the beginning of the night, she'll often sleep really well until she works her arms out, at which point she'll wake up, but will go ballistic if I re-swaddle her. I'm not sure how to solve this problem. Do they sell teeny-tiny baby straightjackets?
Anyway, some updates, in no particular order:
1. Molly announced at dinner tonight that she wanted Kiera to go "far, far away." And never come back. Very cheerfully. Ed pointed out that she's been asking for Kiera to sleep in her room, and Kiera won't ever be able to do that if she's gone far, far away. Molly immediately switched to asking us to set up the crib so Kiera could sleep in her room. Go figure. We told her that first, Kiera needs to be able to sleep for at least most of the night without screaming for a good chunk of it. Molly has been sleeping through Kiera's fits quite peacefully, but I think this might be more of a problem if Kiera were in her room.
Other than this particular outburst, and a couple of potty accidents, and a marked increase in her (pretty normal) three-year-old snottiness, Molly seems to be adjusting to big sisterhood pretty well.
2. Kiera is less happy about adjusting to this whole not-being-in-the-womb-anymore business. Molly was a pretty easy baby: as long as she was being held, and has free access to nurse whenever the mood struck, she was happy. Kiera wants more labor-intensive things. She wants to be bounced, or held up against your shoulder and patted (like you're burping her, except she wants you to keep on doing this for a good half hour). And sometimes nothing makes her happy. When this happens, it usually happens in the middle of the night. Although last night, she was only happy while being held upright and patted from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Ed is a morning person and I am a night person, so we split the shift at 5 a.m., mostly. I deal with Kiera during the night, and Ed gets up with her in the morning (and morning starts at 5 a.m.) I get to sleep as late as I want. Thank goodness for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which is what Ed is using for his paternity leave.
3. I got changes back from my editor, to my new novel (which I turned in back on August 15th), right before I delivered. I took a two-week vacation from everything after the delivery, and started working on edits and rewrites about a week ago. It's going pretty well. Except for my horrible lingering anxiety about all the historical details I'm getting horribly wrong. (It's fantasy. I have no actual obligation to get the historical stuff "right," even though I'm using a real-world setting, sort of. So what if pockets weren't actually invented until 1958 in the real world, in MY world they date back to the Stone Age. But I still worry about it.)
4. Regarding Kiera's fussiness, a friend recommended the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block," which I promptly checked out of the library. The author highly recommends, among other things, swaddling. Really tight swaddling that pins the baby's arms down to her sides. He notes that swaddling itself won't usually calm your baby, but then you can do other stuff and they're more likely to stay calm because they can't flail their arms around. I've found that swaddling either works incredibly well, transforming her in minutes from a screaming furious red-faced baby to a calm sleeping one, or it makes her go absolutely ballistic, and it can be extremely difficult to predict which it will do at any given moment. Also, if I swaddle her at the beginning of the night, she'll often sleep really well until she works her arms out, at which point she'll wake up, but will go ballistic if I re-swaddle her. I'm not sure how to solve this problem. Do they sell teeny-tiny baby straightjackets?
