Sleeplessness and Toes

The past few weeks have been, well... Hell.  Samantha's sleep schedule has been beyond messed up, more like non-existent.  Basically ever since JM went on his Tennessee work trip and we got back from Mom and Dad's she has hardly slept at all.  She wasn't going to bed at her normal time, but not really that much later.  She would sleep until 12 or 1 and then would be up almost every hour.  Exhausting.  Then during the day she would hardly nap at all.  About the time I would lay her down and then shut my eyes she was up again.  So maybe 10-15 minutes.  I would go in and she would be all smiles and act rejuvenated.  It seemed like she was fussy all the time (because she was tired) and was very needy.  She usually does ok with playing around by herself for short periods of time but not this past week or so.  So this week, I was really just at the end of my rope. I was exhausted and almost reduced to tears.  And of course Tuesday and Wednesday nights were nights when JM worked late. I didn't realize how much I depended on him to come home and entertain her for awhile.  Wednesday night I almost just lost it.  He wasn't home, she was extremely fussy, neither one of us had had a nap that day and had little sleep the night before, and I was at the end.  I dreamed of leaving when he got home to just go drive around or something.  Then I felt guilty that I wanted to leave... and then cue the tears.  Then I realized how ridiculous I was being and how sleep deprived I was and sucked it up.

Everyone kept pushing "feed cereal, feed cereal" down my throat, which was really the last thing I wanted to do.  I have been very good breastfeeding.  The first week of her life she had some formula until my milk came in and she did have some when I went back to work b/c I didn't have enough pumped for her.  It wasn't ever very much, just enough to hold her over until I got there to nurse her around 4.  There are just SO many studies out there that show the benefits of no solids until 6-8 months.  The earliest a pediatrician wants you to do it 4 months though.  And really breast milk is all they need (usually) until they are 1 year old.  If I was staying home I would breastfeed until she was one, probably.  My plan was to "wean" her before I went back to school so I don't have to pump.  But that really isn't realistic either because she's not going to be eating ONLY solid foods at that point so I will pump - no biggie.  I just want to give her the BEST start I can so earlier this week I decided that I was NOT going to do the cereal - period, end of story.  I don't feel she's ready and there's no need to start it this early, in my opinion. 
So I did some more research and discovered that around the 4 month mark, many babies go through another growth spurt and "wakeful" period.  Ding-Ding-Ding. She really fit the profile description.  Fussy and irritable, crazy sleep patterns, etc.  Several websites even explicitly said , "this is not the signs you should feed cereal".  This made me feel much better because it had confirmed what I had felt was right.  I few things I read said that it was really debatable whether feeding cereal sometime before bed really did help them sleep through the night.  It most likely is because they are just at that development stage to sleep that long and are at the stage where you can feed solids.  Only one website mentioned that but it does make sense.
So.. when will I start cereal and a few fruits... I don't know.  We have our 4 month appointment on the 19th and the doctor will tell us all about it.  I'm sure we'll start soon, but it will be on our terms when she's ready and when she's in a good mood.  I don't want her first experiences with cereal when she's fussy because that will make it that much harder on me.

On Tuesday, Samantha found her feet.  She just can't keep her hands off of them, especially when she's lying on her back.  If she could bend a little farther, I'm sure she would have them in her mouth - everything else goes in there!  It's pretty cute when we change her diaper because she grabs both feet.  It's kind of a help when you're cleaning her up but when you try to put the diaper back on they get in the way!  She's also starting to squeal more often. 
It's also getting easier to get her to laugh.  I've still not be able to get the real long laugh again from the day I sneezed but she does get a little giggle out.   She's very ticklish and tries to squirm away which is pretty funny.  She also giggles when you "scare" her.

I'm sure my next debate will be rice vs oatmeal vs whole grain wheat cereal... stay tuned! ha ha ha