Experiences Of A New Mother: Try and Try Again

With my bundle only being just over six weeks old, I have come to realized that a technique that worked yesterday most definitely does not have to work today. I mean, if there was a rule book for new time mothers, that would be like . . . rule number two. Right after "Do not shake your baby."



Case in point . . .

A couple of nights ago, I was able to get my bundle to sleep in his bassinet. Not for the entire night, mind you, but at least for awhile. Per usual, I try to get him to bed by 8 p.m. at night. I have absolutely no idea if six weeks is too young to try and get a baby on a schedule--in all likelihood it is--however, hey, what could I really lose by trying to establish a schedule? Nothing.

So anyway . . .

Got him into bed, fed him an ounce of his bottle, picked him up, burped him and laid him back down in his bassinet. I did this until the bottle was completely gone and he just . . . fell asleep.

I know! I was shocked too!

Then I promptly went to bed myself. Remember what I said in a previous blog? Sleep When Baby Sleeps. He woke up a few hours later, I repeated the process and it was a bit harder to get him to sleep in his bassinet so he ultimately ended up in the bed with us but still, progress is progress.

Think that that same process worked tonight? Hecks no!

I try to get him to drink his bottle while in the bassinet and get him to sleep afterwards and he was not having it. By no means did he show that he was in any way prepared to fall asleep in his bassinet. I picked him up, cuddled him and promptly put his near-comatose form into the bassinet.

He woke up minutes later as I was just putting my "Yoga For Beginners" DVD into the player. Gah!

I went back in, picked him up and managed to coax him back into sleep and attempted to put him in his bassinet and it was another no-go. Okaaaaaay . . .

By now, I had figuratively put on my boxing gloves. You wanna go, my little bundle, well Mama was  more than ready to pick up that gauntlet.

Because I have a voracious appetite for music, all I did while pregnant was listen to music and dance along with it. If you can imagine a 38 week pregnant woman dancing to, well, this . . .

. . . that was me. Well, granted, I never actually danced those particular dance moves but still . . . you get the general idea of the type of music I listen too.

So, tonight I plopped in a small speaker, hooked up my Ipod and swaddled the little bundle and he fell almost immediately asleep.

I have other examples of the same type of thing but I'll just skip to the point.

No singular method will work 100% of the time. What I've learned is after trying and failing on one particular method then "shelve" that method for a different time and move on to a new method. It's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat--sometimes you get a mouse, a guinea pig or even of goldfish.

Okay, that's a terrible analogy but still, sometimes it takes a bit to find the right method in any given moment but be patient, there is always an answer to every child's riddle. It's just a matter of finding it in that moment.

This goes for calming down a baby, putting that baby to sleep, entertaining that baby but honestly, for me it's really just trying to keep my colicky baby calm and comfortable. Sometimes swaddling works. Sometimes not.

No method is sure fire to work and if you are one of the very select, lucky individuals to inherit a baby where one thing works all the time then . . . don't have a second child. I am only half joking when I say this. I've been told by multiple people that if the first child is a dream, then the second child will be a nightmare. Of course, if your first child is a nightmare then you really have nothing to lose by having a second child because you're already well aware of what might come out of your va-jay-jay.

But if your first child is a dream . . . don't tempt fate and just enjoy your god-given gift! Again . . . only half joking.

Nah, even if my little bundle had been a dream, complete with harps and violins, I'd still opt to have another child because although I spend most of my nights with one eye open and two hands on a pre-readied bottle, I'd do it all over again knowing the results because there really is nothing like being a mother to a wonderful, even colicky, child.

I can't say I enjoy every moment of this Try and Try Again way of life at the moment, but hey . . . the good outweigh the bad.