13th Week of Sam June 9th - June 15th

Well the Wednesday that we were at State Convention marked the 3 month mark for Sam.  Wow, 3 months.  Really? Seriously?  People always go "she's so littttllee" when they see or hold her.  I just want to go "Are you crazy?".  Well let's face it, she's little in the grand scheme of things but to me she's getting huge!  On Monday the 7th, I took her to the doctor for her cold and she weighed 11lbs 1oz.  I forget how long she was. I want to say she was 24 inches but I can't remember.  The 17th we have our 3 month check-up so I will know then.
This past weekend we just stayed around home.  JM's brother and his family came home for the weekend.  This live in South Carolina and have two kids Brock and Mary Beth.  Brock and Mary were in our wedding.  Speaking of the wedding, it has been since then that we have seen Trevor and Jill!  Too long!  Anyways, JM came home early on Friday and I immediately made him a doctor's appointment.  He couldn't hardly open his mouth and the back of his mouth hurt.  I figured it was his tonsils or strep....great...  Well, I just made an appointment at the Paris  Community Hospital/Clinic.  THey have several doctors there and they made him an appointment with the on-call doctor.  What a joke.  He said he didn't see anything and gave him over-the-counter Zyrtec.  When we got back home he pried hsi mouth open and looked in his mouth.  He had what looked like a canker sore back where he had had one of his wisdom teeth removed.  So after all that, obviously the Zyrtec wasn't going to work.  He decided to give it the weekend and see what happened.  That Friday, Jill, Trevor, Brock, and Mary came over and spent that afternoon was with us.  Sam gave them some of her cute smiles but also showed off her lungs.  The past few days she's been pretty cranky.  Maybe she's teething?? 
Saturday morning JM got up extra early and was in Paris by 4 a.m.  This weekend was the Shriner BBQ Weekend.  They cook hundreds of pounds of BBQ and have a big parade.  JM went in early to help start the meat cooking.  He was back at 7:30, just in time for Sam and I to wake up! =)  We then went into Chrisman to visit with Ben and Bonnie and to meet Trev and his family at the Brick Inn.  Uncle Joe and his family was also there so it was a nice little reunion.  Around 1 or so we had to get out of the Inn because Joy's customers were coming back.  JM and Brock went down to Paris to pick up our BBQ and Sam and I rode with Trevor, Jill, and Mary back to our house.  Sam wasn't happy at all and sucked on my pinky all the way home.  For some reason, the pacifier sents her into a whole other realm of pissed-off lately.  The Ashton's stayed for awhile and had some great BBQ.  Sam finally passed out.  She has been avoiding sleep lately and gets SO cranky. 
Sunday was just a lazy day and it was SO nice to have it. 
Monday and Tuesday this week have been slow days.  Sam gets cranky in the evenings because she's not sleeping much during the day.  She just naps a few minutes here or there.  She's turning into a real sleep monster.  Part of it is the habits we've created.  She now doesn't just fall to sleep on her own.  But that didnt' happen much before this week anyways.  She's a breastfed baby and that is usually how she falls asleep.  I've read that if they use you as there pacifier to sleep then you're supposed to feed them about 30 minutes before they usually go to bed that way they don't fall asleep and then will drift off on their own around bed time.  YEA... RIGHT...  If you let them nurse, they are going to fall asleep regardless of 30 minutes or 60 or whatever.  It's like putting you in a nice warm blanket and have someone gently rub your back or whatever really relaxing thing you enjoy.  If you're tired and you do something like that you're going to fall asleep.  It's not rocket science here people!
The problem is that lately after she nurses, falls asleep, and I go to lay her down she wakes up.  What the heck!  The girl can be out and I mean O-U-T but as soon as her little head comes in contact with the blanket she starts to stirr and I freeze and kind of jiggle her a little bit.  She then drifts back off and when I go to remove my hand from underneath her it's a done deal.  She's awake.  We got through this about 2-3 times each night and every time for a nap.  It's getting old, quickly.   It seems like something lately has interrupted her normalness.  Yesterday I tried doing the whole cry it out thing. It never worked and only ended up with an overly cranky, overly exhausted, extremely pissed off infant that was no closer to sleep than we started. To be honest we couldnt' have been further from sleep. She was screaming so hard and loud that it made her cough... and then choke...and then gasp for breathe.  Which only made me more anxious, laugh because it was that or cry and I had already done that, feel guilty that I might have created and sleep monster, and helpless.  Yesterday night I tried again after it didn't work during the day.  Something about when you fall off a horse you get up and ride again.  Ok, so I saddled up and put my big girl pants on.  I tried to put her to bed several times.  On the last attempt she woke up so I decided I was going to let her cry.  Surely she would fall asleep soon, right? ha.........ha...............ha...........*sigh*.  JM kept giving me looks from the couch.  We had turned off the monitor b/c we could hear her screaming, why did we need it amplified?  He goes back to the bedroom and I think he's getting ready for bed.  Then the screaming stops and for a brief instant I think "oh my. Thank you God. IT worked".  Then I turn the monitor on and listen but don't hear anything. So then I shift to "Oh NO. She got choked and can't breathe. What have I done?"  As I get to our bedroom door (yes OUR bedroom door.  She's still in there) I meet JM and guess who else!  I bet you didn't see this coming.  It was Sam! Looking very cranky and very tired.  JM made the comment that he wasn't heartless enough to listen to her scream like that.  And that it is different to watch her fuss/cry in her seat when she just wants to be held.  I responded with a smile and inside thought "thank you.".  I was only letting her cry it out b/c I thought that that was what he wanted me to do.  Come to find out, he only supports it when she's fussing to be fussing and wants to be held when we have just sat her in her seat or wherever.  I'm thankful I'm not the only one in the house that doesn't handle her screaming very well. =)  I rocked her back to sleep and she went to bed without any problems.

Tonight is the big night though. I spent the day putting away and folding clothes, which were all in her crib.  She has now been sleeping in her crib for an hour now.  God help me.  JM reminded me last week that I had said that I would start putting her in the crib at night when school was out.  Well, school's been out for awhile.  In my defense I also said I was going to wait until she slept through the night.  I've been meaning to do it all week last week, but we were gone most of it and well insert a few other excuses in here at this time.  I'll save you the reading, just insert it in on your own.   I do think that maybe this will help her sleep through the night, but maybe I'm being naive.  But this way we won't be going to bed walking on eggshells trying to be as quiet as possible so we don't wake her out of her pre-deep sleep.  Also, when I get up to nurse her at night I will sit in the rocker instead of doing it in bed.  When getting out of our water bed, I know it's too much movement to not interrupt her light sleeping which makes it hard to lay her down without her stirring and waking up.  So in the end, I know it's going to be better with her sleeping in there. *sigh* I've also been really bad about letting her nurse at 5 or so and then letting her sleep beside me until she wakes up around 7.  I know I know I know.... it's not good.  But I LOVE it ... absolutely LOVE it.  I love waking up to her smiley morning stretch and her sweet baby breathe.  Just one of the many heartbreaking things a momma has to do, I guess. =)