Friday, December 28, 2007

Cara Bambina - Not Again

Mia Cara Nervosetta Bambina (my dear fussy baby),

What a rough night we all had. You are a poor baby, and I know this is tough for you. But you are breaking your parents. We are broken. You're daddy's back? Broken from carrying, holding, rocking you. You're mommy's psyche? Broken from trying to soothe, nurse, get you back to sleep, deal with your fussiness and clinginess. We are two broken people trying to make you sleep and feel better.

Just when I thought things were finally at the edge of manageable, you hit another regression. You're dad does not want me to jump to the conclusion that this is the 46 week (10 month-ish) sleep regression/fussy period that should accompany a developmental spurt (so if you are reading this Londo, I suggest you stop and come back to it in another week), but I see all the signs. I've referenced the only book that has ever been true for you (my unique baby). The early evenings and early mornings have been getting more and more difficult for you to sleep, and you've started getting extra clingy and fussy during the day. You are obviously not feeling right.

I'm hoping this fussy period does not last long. I think the 37 week/9-month period was supposed to be pretty bad, but it wasn't too bad for you. Nothing like the period when you were 3.5 months to 7.5 months. THAT was bad. You are almost 42 weeks, and you tend to go through these periods early and take your time getting through them.

But please, please, can you try to get through this a little quicker and easier? Your broken parents need to try to get repaired, and everytime we are close, we break again. We are fragile right now because of the repeated breaking. The superglue needs time to set, you know. And we all need time to sleep. When you start sleeping through the night, I will buy you a pony. Okay, I won't really, but your dad and I will be VERY HAPPY! And don't you want to make us happy?

la tua mama a pezzi (your broken mama),
Mama

4 comments:

Cloud said...

Oh, Caramama, I feel for you! We're in sleep hell, too, but my parents are in town so my Mom is taking one of the shifts. Three is so much better than two! I was up for an hour in the middle of the night with a screaming, squirming baby who just wanted to crawl over and put a cord in her mouth, and MOMMY! WHY WON'T YOU LET ME??? WAAAAAH! But I knew that if (ok, when) she woke up again at 4 or 5 a.m., I could hand her to her Grandma and crawl back into bed. That made it sooo much better.

My cousin and I have been commiserating about bad sleep over on my blog. We're thinking that maybe the sleep fairy likes milk and cookies. I think that maybe she is on vacation right now. Maybe when she comes back from vacation all of our babies will start to sleep better.

Becoming Mommy said...

Ugh!
I have to say we're pretty lucky that it doesn't take much to calm Sasha down. It's just he wants to play all night long...

Anonymous said...

I want to say that phase was pretty bad for us as well. I tend to want to give up the breastfeeding during those phases. All I can say is that it does get better. Of course Boog is 52 weeks today so we are getting close to that last 55 week stage. Yay! Ugh.

OneTiredEma said...

I know that every single night seems endless. I know. You are willing to give up your bed to her and hang by your feet above it if you can just SLEEP uninterrupted. Oy. I am sorry.

But the best I can hope for you is what I have now--the child who puts herself to bed and (usually) sleeps all night. The one who you feel compelled to check on at six in the morning because it's been 11hours since you last heard from her and omg is she still breathing???

Now, we had a good three years to get us to this point (and no Moxie during The Hard Years), but it's here. We're living the dream. This is a major reason why I haven't sold her brother to the circus--because I have to hope it's just something that they grow out of and finally everything clicks and it is too much bother to rally for boob, water, hugs, or the bathroom.

In the meantime, if you'd like a recitation of Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom in the middle of the night (at some point between 1 and 4), I'd be happy to put you on speakerphone.

Learning I Have Hypertension

This past winter, I discovered I have developed high blood pressure. This came as a surprise for me, since I generally had always had blood ...