Cold Turkey
Since Pearl was very, very young, we have gotten her to sleep by bouncing her on an exercise ball. Occasionally she will fall asleep in the car or nursing, but bouncing is usually what we do to get her down. I have been wanting to stop using the ball for a while now, as she is getting heavy and I am just plain sick of bouncing. I was trying to transition her to falling asleep rocking by bouncing until she was mostly asleep, then moving to the rocking chair until she was all the way out, which often ended with me nursing her back down when she woke up upon being put in bed, but if she is rocked when she is fully awake but tired then she gets irate and yells at me.
Well, a few nights ago she woke up at 2:30am and I bounced her, then she woke up, then my husband bounced her, and while they were bouncing the ball popped. Not an explosion or anything a la Defective Yeti; after reading that I made sure and purchased one that wouldn't pop. It just deflated with a slow hiss.
So yesterday we were without a ball at naptime. I thought about getting another ball and I'm still not sure that I won't, but this just seems like such a good reason to make myself stop using it. The down side is that Pearl needs it to go to sleep. It's like without that motion to trigger her to sleepiness she doesn't know how to get there, and it frustrates her, understandably. I suppose it is entirely my fault for getting her used to being bounced to sleep every single time, but I didn't realize that's what was going on until it was too late and she was set in her ways. Not that I think we're doomed to only take one thirty minute nap a day, as was the case yesterday, but I feel really bad when she's tired and it takes three rounds of nursing, getting back out of bed, nursing again, trying to rock, until finally she passes out.
Anyway, I'm in the process of redesigning my blog, so be prepared for changes! I can barely stand to look at it any more; I don't know what I was thinking when I made it. Never design a website eight weeks postpartum I guess.
Well, a few nights ago she woke up at 2:30am and I bounced her, then she woke up, then my husband bounced her, and while they were bouncing the ball popped. Not an explosion or anything a la Defective Yeti; after reading that I made sure and purchased one that wouldn't pop. It just deflated with a slow hiss.
So yesterday we were without a ball at naptime. I thought about getting another ball and I'm still not sure that I won't, but this just seems like such a good reason to make myself stop using it. The down side is that Pearl needs it to go to sleep. It's like without that motion to trigger her to sleepiness she doesn't know how to get there, and it frustrates her, understandably. I suppose it is entirely my fault for getting her used to being bounced to sleep every single time, but I didn't realize that's what was going on until it was too late and she was set in her ways. Not that I think we're doomed to only take one thirty minute nap a day, as was the case yesterday, but I feel really bad when she's tired and it takes three rounds of nursing, getting back out of bed, nursing again, trying to rock, until finally she passes out.
Anyway, I'm in the process of redesigning my blog, so be prepared for changes! I can barely stand to look at it any more; I don't know what I was thinking when I made it. Never design a website eight weeks postpartum I guess.
posted by fuzzypeach | 12:56 PM
2 Comments:
LOL those post-partum hormones can make us do some wacky things. I hear bad blog design is one of them ;) (not that I thought it was bad)
I wish I had some magical advice for you and the naps but yeah, we're not so great w/that here! But I do think it popped for a reason, it's your chance to de-bounce yourself. I HAD to nurse J to sleep then suddenly that stopped working so now I usually have to stand and bounce him. You are right, at least you do get some nice calves out of it but it is annoying! He switches it up on me though.
I've been meaning to ask you about where Pearl naps. Incase you haven't noticed you are my "go-to" gal for help since your more experienced and all and do things along the same lines as us ;)
Julian had a little, uh, accident in the bed after a nap the other day so not sure where he can safely sleep. The crib is out of the question, I don't see that ever working for us the way he screams the second he touches the mattress. It might work if I could actually get in the crib w/him and nurse him to sleep :) I've tried putting the crib mattress on the floor and same thing. Does Pearl sleep in your bed alone?
Pearl does indeed sleep in our bed alone for naps. She had an accident too and fell out of bed... not during a nap, but in the middle of the night :O She made her way to the foot of the bed and we woke up to her crying... she was ok, thankfully. After that we were going to sidecar a crib to our bed as seen here: http://groups.msn.com/SteveandLishsFamily/sidecarcrib.msnw but after shopping around for convertible cribs I realized that in order to get the crib mattress level with our bed, the sides of the crib wouldn't be high enough to contain her! She would stand up on them and topple over, falling from an even high height! So I said forget it, and we moved our bed off the frame and onto the floor:) It seemed the safest thing. Then my sister solved the crib-side-height problem by putting bed-leg raising things on the feet of her baby's crib.
Anyway, currently, yes, she sleeps along on our bed for naps, our bed is in a corner and I put a pillow along the edge... which so doesn't stop her but slows her down a little. I keep a baby monitor right next to her so I hear her (usually) as soon as she starts to move. Now if J is upstairs and you're downstairs while he naps the monitor trick prolly wouldn't give you enough time. But you might think about the sidecarring the crib thing, if you haven't already.
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