I'd love to know how babies know the second you put them down. It doesn't matter how hard they were sleeping before you put them down. They still know. Not only do they know, though, they wake up. This isn't always a bad thing. My son about one quarter of the time wakes up and is in a pretty good mood. About half the time he wakes up hungry. This equates to some fussing but nothing overly serious and remedied with ease.
It's that last quarter that drives me crazy. You know, when they wake up screaming and you can't figure out why. At least I haven't been able to when my son does this. Granted, the last few days I know why he's been crabby. However, seeing as it was thrush, the best I could do was give him his medication like the doctor said and leave it at that. But that doesn't help in the immediate moment much. Lucky for me he's just about over it. I'm hoping that cuts down on the odds of him waking up with a tantrum.
And, trust me, attempting to reason with a 6 week old child just doesn't work. Particularly when they are sounding more like an air raid siren than a tiny infant. For you non-parents out there, you're probably laughing at me saying 'No kidding!' right about now. Anyone who's parented a child through this age understands. Either that or I have gone crazy.
In the end I've resigned myself to the fact that infants somehow have hardwired sensors that tell them when you put them down. Each time I put my son down, I pray that when he wakes up, he won't be in a bad mood and that he'll go back to sleep right away.
Sometimes I even get that prayer answered...
Well, you have gone crazy, but I say that BECAUSE I understand, not because I don't. You have the mental illness called parenthood, I think.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, folks, I don't know how many things in my house I have broken because I was carrying a baby in one hand and trying to do something else with the other. At the time, it seemed preferable to the crying...
Hope he's feeling better!!!
Oh the choices we have to make sometimes. At least I know I'm not alone in this insanity or parenthood or whatever you want to call it!
DeleteIf you're crazy, then we are all nuts. That screaming sound is just the very worst--it cuts right through your brain and into your heart and you will do anything for that child just to stop that sound. I can't even be out in public and hear a random baby!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - it's been a big struggle to learn to let him cry sometimes even though that's what his doctor's told me to do if I can't figure out what else is wrong. And I know what you mean about crying babies in public. My first instinct is to check on mine to see if it's him then I want to find the one that is crying and fix whatever is wrong.
DeleteWe are laughing--WITH you, not AT you. :) I'm not sure I buy the doctor's advice about the crying, though--at least not until a great deal of otherness has been tried...they's so fresh from being cuddled all the time in the womb, I think they just really need that physical contact, for no other reason than that they need it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also am struggling with my now-10-month-old baby who thinks he gets to wake up yelling and nurse whenever he wants to, even though there's virtually nothing left for him in there...last night was dicey for about an hour, trying to get him to settle down for the night! I sympathize!
Yeah - I have a hard time putting him down most of the time. It's bedtimes that I have to force myself to lay him down to sleep - usually after I've picked him up multiple times, let him fall asleep holding him, put him back down and he wakes up. But, I wouldn't trade this for anything! Glad to hear there are more parents out there who really get this insanity that is parenting!
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