Paranoia, crying/sleeping, Ergo, car seats, and more!

Nate was gone last night, on a campout with the young men from church. There was a time when I didn't mind this kind of thing, I didn't even blink. I would stay up late with a sappy teen vampire romance (oh yeah!) or do something crafty or whatever. Whatever I wanted. And it was fine. But now there's a little baby in the house, and when he's gone I become a very un-me, perpetually frightened woman. I worry that someone bad is going to try and attack us or that a catastrophe will strike, and that either baby or I will be in danger. So I go around the house and apply all three locks to every door (there really are at least three locks on every external door in the house -- a paranoia present from the previous owners). Then I toss and turn in my bed, worrying, struggling to sleep.

Last night wasn't too bad. With all of the locks applied to all of the doors I didn't feel too worried, and I only tossed around in bed for maybe ten minutes before I settled in to sleep...

Still, it's a strange new personality quirk and I'm not a fan. I'd like to have my fearless, carefree self back, thankyouverymuch.

Overall, I think the sleep situation in our house has vastly improved. We've been doing "cry it out" for more than a week now and I am happy to report that it is working -- Baby Girl is learning to sleep on her own. We've had a few hiccups and it has been hard, but worthwhile...

Last night, for instance, Darling cried for about 15 minutes when I first put her down. So I went to check on her, gave her a little cuddle, and put her back in her crib. Then I hovered and hummed for a few minutes until she closed her eyes. (This is a little tip I picked up from watching my mom this week, that it comforts the baby just to have someone watching over her; thus baby is still putting herself to sleep, just with the comforting knowledge that mommy isn't far away. Much kinder and easier on all of us. Thanks mom, you're brilliant as usual! I think it generally helps to let Baby Girl cry for a few minutes before I come back in to do the hover/hum.) When I sneaked out of Darling's room last night, I roused her with the click of the door closing, but she cried for only a minute before settling down so I didn't have to go in again. THEN she slept for nearly 10 hours, which means I got a 7-hour stretch. Hallelujah.

Even though she woke up at 5am, she was back to sleep before 6am and slept for another two hours. It was bliss. I enjoy having a brief early-morning sleep/cuddle with my baby.

Tonight when I put her down she didn't cry at all. She fussed a little bit, but I hover/hummed for a couple of minutes and she passed out happily. According to friends who have endured this cry-it-out period with their children, it takes 2-3 weeks and then she will be in a good routine. So... one week down. One or two to go. To reiterate, it has been worth the struggle from our perspective.

Another thing I mentioned in last week's post was the new baby backpack that we ordered, the Ergo. It came yesterday (Friday)! I'm glad I got the gray one with stars on it because it is CUTE and I love it. We used it just a little bit yesterday, then again for awhile today. I used it in the afternoon for about an hour when  I was working in the garden. Nate used it  later in the evening when we went out to do a little more yard work. It's awesome! I'm much more productive with the baby on my back. She definitely enjoys it, too.

We moved about half a dozen loads of weeds and branches out of the garden today. There's maybe a couple more loads to go and it will be cleared, ready for tilling and top soil. We were on target to get it cleared today, but then Nate broke the shovel. Ha. This is probably the third shovel he's broken in the last three years; I guess he just doesn't know his own strength! It's hard when you're nothing but muscle. Teehee. It was about time for us to wrap up anyway, as I needed to get dinner out of the slow cooker and make something for the baby. (We had chicken in a tomato/broccoli sauce; I pureed some of the chicken and broccoli with some milk for Darling. Everyone enjoyed dinner. Baby Girl even had extra chicken... she just kept opening her mouth and eating! It was a new experience -- usually I can't even get her to eat the one tablespoon of food I make, but tonight she wanted more and more. Awesome.)

This week I continued to research Stage 2 car seats, and I am no closer to making a decision than I was last week. I now have a ton of information, some of it contradictory, floating around in my head. It's very confusing, trying to figure out which seat to get. Nate and I went to the store just so we could play with a couple of brands; we found that there were things we liked and disliked about nearly every make and model. Part of me wishes that someone would just tell me what to buy, or maybe even just show up with a car seat. That was how we ended up with our infant car seat -- a co-worker offered to give it to us, I was told by several people that it is an excellent car seat, and viola! Done. And I could not have picked a better infant car seat on my own, so it worked out really well, even.

Switching gears a little bit, here's an update about work: I just finished conducting a survey of local employers and I am writing a report about the survey results. It's not a big report (maybe 8-10 pages) but it's important to the uber boss. The whole survey and report was his brainchild, and he's very excited. I've created most of the charts and graphs -- that's the easiest part. I have one "chapter" (about two pages) finished, and I've outlined the rest of the chapters. It's due at the end of next week; I'm confident it will be done on time. But I'm also worried about it. Like I said, the report is important to the uber boss. And I really like the uber boss. Not only is he an incredible manager and leader, he's also a really, really great person, and I don't want to disappoint him. He had my back a couple of times last year when I needed some support. He's put a lot of faith in me. I want to prove that his faith and support are well-placed. I know the report will be great when all is said and done, so I guess... I just hope it lives up to his expectations.

I think that's just about all of the news-worthy happenings in our house, so I am going to grab a piece of toast and watch some a few minutes of some sappy teen vampire drama before I have to go to bed.   :o)