Baby Whisperer Days 3 & 4: Contemplating

So. Monday was awesome, Tuesday has been ROUGH. But I think we are on our way back into sanity.

First in log notation, then in narrative/discussion form:

1/26/09 (Monday)
7:30 WU babbling, ready to play
BF strong both sides, about 10 min. Offered cereal/cheerios, not into it
8:30 sleepy cues. Played another 1/2 hour until def. sleepy.
9:15-10:40: nap, PU/PD 14x over 15 minutes. Left room a couple times when she was babbling, standing, not crying. Returned immediately when cried.
BF strong, not into food.
12:00-1:00 @ GG's. Not into food. Rooting.
BF strong @ 1:00ish, drove home crying v. tired.
1:15-3:20 nap. PU/PD 7x over 5 minutes
2:20 WU, resettled PU/PD 4x over 3 minutes
BF, ate food, played, BF again 2x; acted tired all through; tried to put down at 4:30 or so to no avail.
got up at 5 to play. BF, ate a lot of mushy pear, water, fed self cheerio! :-)
5:26-6:10: nap, PU/PD about 10x? over 11 minutes
went to Trek @ Martins', fed her a handful of Cheerios one by one.
8:50-ish started wind-down
9:20 PU/PD 15x over 20 minutes, much less crying

So. Trends of note: two good long naps in the day, during which I did not need to re-settled her down in the middle! I was so deliriously happy about this that I spent both chunks of time on the computer instead of napping myself, which turned out in retrospect to be a serious error in judgement/strategy. The proverbial chickens came home to roost today. But more on that later.

Another thing I noticed was that since we started this process, she has regressed somewhat in terms of eating solid food, but wants to BF a lot more. Yesterday she didn't eat any solid food until after 4 p.m. I don't know if it's because I am nursing her less during the night (twice at most), or just a general retrenchment in the face of this big New Thing we are doing. Also, the first day she was a little extra clingy with me, but not the second or third day. And the third thing I've noticed is that she seems to be talking a little bit less than she was, but that may just be my impression; I haven't really been monitoring her vocalizations that closely.

What I did notice on Monday was that generally she was really happy, seemed very content, fussed less during diaper and clothing changes, also less fussing in the car seat. I wonder if she's been sort of chronically overtired in the past few weeks?

Ok, now Tuesday (today), Day Four of the new sleep regime:
Night
9:20 to bed; PU/PD 15x over 20 minutes, much less crying
11:20 PU/PD 1x
1:43 PU/PD 9x over 25 minutes, from wide awake/playing/babbling
2:20 restless, thump, cry - PU/PD 1x
2:45 or so, WU, BF, fell asleep around 3 (put down when almost out)
6:00 ish, WU, BF, PU/PD 1x

1/27/09 (Tuesday) D4
7:00 WU, got up instead of extending sleep even though she seemed tired still.
BF, cheerios, huge poop, v. tired
8:10 begin wind-down
8:20 in crib, awake, wanting to play, lost count of PU/PD, after 40 min got up again
BF, ate mushy pears, played
9:30 seemed v. tired, begin wind-down again
9:50-10:20: nap, PU/PD 12x over 10 minutes
*working on the soothing part of wind-down.
BF, ate cereal w/ avocado, cheerios, seemed tired and sleepy yet.
12:00-1:15: nap/interrupted
12:30 WU, resettled
1:00 WU, resettled
1:15 just got up and BF
ate some cheerios and cereal, drank a lot of water, played, skyped GGP
3:30-5:30: nap. PU/PD 2x, she went down quick!!
4:00 WU, PU/PD 7x, noticed she was pulling her left ear and shaking head hard.

Discussion:
On the chart it looks like she woke up five times in the night, but the section from 1:45 a.m. to 3 a.m. was just kind of all one jack-in-the-box up and down. I missed the hungry cue at the beginning of that period; when I finally did nurse her she went right down. We had two 2-hour blocks and one 3-hour block but I was still very tired at 7 when we got up.

I should have tried to get her to sleep a little longer, extending the night sleep for at least another hour, but it was a snow day and I wanted to let Terry sleep in a little longer, and the thought of another half-hour PU/PD session just made me tired. So I just took her out into the living room. This kind of threw our whole day off kilter, as she wasn't done sleeping and so spent the next hour rubbing her eyes intermittently. So I tried to put her down for a nap just after 8, to no avail - after 40 minutes I gave up (as per Baby Whisperer protocol). We tried again an hour later and she took a half-hour nap. I could/should have tried to extend that nap too, but again I was just tired and frustrated so we got up and fed her and whatnot, but she was still very tired.

By noon I was about DONE IN. Tired to the point of tears. I put her down and tried to nap while she napped, but she woke up every 1/2 hour, and in between I had to get up to use the bathroom, so with one thing and another I got no nap at all. It was very frustrating.

So then we did our afternoon thing - ate, played, skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Phelps in LA (that was fun!). At 3:30 she rubbed her eyes and I immediately called nap. She went down really fast and easy. I lay down myself as well, but at 4 she was up again. I resettled her to sleep again and at that point gave up on getting any rest myself today. Figures that at that point she finally DID take a long extended nap, an hour and a half! I took a bath and then got my turn on the computer b/c Terry was done working (he was home for the snow day, and I didn't have my babysitter for same reason).

Right now she is playing on the floor behind me and Terry is cleaning off the car to possibly take her to Grandma and Grandpa Jantzi's. Maybe I will get a nap yet.

Further Thoughts

• The measure to which I am re-training her is matched by the measure to which I am re-training myself. Changing my ingrained parenting habits is no small undertaking. Keeping in mind the principles of the new regime is a challenge, but more important than just mastering the procedures/techniques/rules.
• There's no way I could do this and be working full-time at the same time. I have this little window of time right now before I start my A-exams in earnest next week. It had better be working by then is all I have to say.