3 Nelson's first night home.
Eric and I have been studiously preparing to be parents for the last nine months. We've watched videos, read parenting books, counseled extensively with parents we want to model, and prayed daily for wisdom.
Early on, we decided that this child would fit into OUR family rather than our family life revolving around this child. To accomplish this, we came up with quite an elaborate feeding schedule and sleeping schedule we decided should be implemented right away. This included NO co-sleeping (Eric felt very strongly about this), lying her down in her crib BEFORE she went to sleep so she could learn to self sooth, and working on getting her feeding schedule every 2 hours around the clock, even if that meant waking her up. We also wanted her in her own room from day 1, which meant that Eric and I would be able to blissfully sleep in the other room only to awaken every 2 hours for a feeding. Of course, we knew that this might not happen the first night while still in the hospital with nurses, alarms, etc. But our plan was to carry out the above detailed regiment as soon as we arrived home.
And so it was, yesterday, we brought our bundle of joy home from the hospital. Bundle of Joy simply because we knew that as she fit into our carefully planned schedule she would naturally develop a joyful, compliant attitude that would carry itself into all areas of her life and ours. We didn't get released until close to 5pm and so arrived home. Everything was going according to plan. Baby was placed in her crib and went to sleep. So far so good. Then it all fell apart.
Like most new parents, we were very concerned for our new baby's welfare. Eric had to reassure Rachel that we didn't have to watch every breath, she would most likely breathe just find on her own. Rachel believed him and went to bed.
Now poor Eric was tortured with doubts. Rachel was asleep, so he figured that meant he had to make sure little AmyAnn kept breathing. Every slight noise she made and he jumped out of bed and ran into the other room to make sure she was ok (and she always was.) But now Rachel was sound asleep and snoring very loudly, in fact, louder than she had snored while she was pregnant. Before, Eric had just used earplugs. But now, if he did that, he wouldn't be able to hear AmyAnn crying for help. So there was no help for it, Eric went in and slept in the baby's room to make sure she was ok. As it turned out, she woke up very often indicating she wasn't ok. After checking diapers, Eric would carry her in for a feeding, Rachel would oblige and then carry her back in to her crib. After about 15 minutes of sleep, AmyAnn would awaken again indicating her displeasure with her surroundings and desire for mommy and back to mommy she would go. Finally, around 2am, everyone had had enough and AmyAnn spent the rest of the night sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed on mommy's chest.
Tomorrow is another night and maybe we'll start applying our rules then...
Eric and I have been studiously preparing to be parents for the last nine months. We've watched videos, read parenting books, counseled extensively with parents we want to model, and prayed daily for wisdom.
Early on, we decided that this child would fit into OUR family rather than our family life revolving around this child. To accomplish this, we came up with quite an elaborate feeding schedule and sleeping schedule we decided should be implemented right away. This included NO co-sleeping (Eric felt very strongly about this), lying her down in her crib BEFORE she went to sleep so she could learn to self sooth, and working on getting her feeding schedule every 2 hours around the clock, even if that meant waking her up. We also wanted her in her own room from day 1, which meant that Eric and I would be able to blissfully sleep in the other room only to awaken every 2 hours for a feeding. Of course, we knew that this might not happen the first night while still in the hospital with nurses, alarms, etc. But our plan was to carry out the above detailed regiment as soon as we arrived home.
And so it was, yesterday, we brought our bundle of joy home from the hospital. Bundle of Joy simply because we knew that as she fit into our carefully planned schedule she would naturally develop a joyful, compliant attitude that would carry itself into all areas of her life and ours. We didn't get released until close to 5pm and so arrived home. Everything was going according to plan. Baby was placed in her crib and went to sleep. So far so good. Then it all fell apart.
Like most new parents, we were very concerned for our new baby's welfare. Eric had to reassure Rachel that we didn't have to watch every breath, she would most likely breathe just find on her own. Rachel believed him and went to bed.
Now poor Eric was tortured with doubts. Rachel was asleep, so he figured that meant he had to make sure little AmyAnn kept breathing. Every slight noise she made and he jumped out of bed and ran into the other room to make sure she was ok (and she always was.) But now Rachel was sound asleep and snoring very loudly, in fact, louder than she had snored while she was pregnant. Before, Eric had just used earplugs. But now, if he did that, he wouldn't be able to hear AmyAnn crying for help. So there was no help for it, Eric went in and slept in the baby's room to make sure she was ok. As it turned out, she woke up very often indicating she wasn't ok. After checking diapers, Eric would carry her in for a feeding, Rachel would oblige and then carry her back in to her crib. After about 15 minutes of sleep, AmyAnn would awaken again indicating her displeasure with her surroundings and desire for mommy and back to mommy she would go. Finally, around 2am, everyone had had enough and AmyAnn spent the rest of the night sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed on mommy's chest.
Tomorrow is another night and maybe we'll start applying our rules then...
Comments
Congratulations on your new little bundle of joy. Enjoy!